CROP INSURANCE : RISKS, LOSSES, ETC. 5 
QUANTITATIVE IMPORTANCE OF ANNUAL DAMAGE TO FARM 
CROPS. 
About 12 years ago the United States Department of Agriculture 
began to require of its thousands of crop reporters in all parts of the 
United States estimates of the percentage of damage caused to lead- 
ing crops from specified causes. The crops covered are corn, wheat, 
oats, barley, flaxseed, rice, potatoes, tobacco, hay, and cotton. The 
percentage of damage from the various causes and the quantitative 
damage, calculated by applying the standard for a perfect or no- 
damage crop indicated above, are given in condensed form in 
Fig. 1. — Geographic divisions to which figures in Tables 1 and 2 apply. 
Tables 1 and 2, respectively. Table 3 gives value figures obtained 
by applying to the quantitative figures the price per unit prevailing 
during each year. While all three tables give damage by the same 
specified causes for each of the crops enumerated, Tables 1 and 2 
give in percentages and in quantitative units, respectively, average 
annual damage during the decade, 1909-1918, by geographic divi- 
sions, as well as for the country as a whole. Table 3, on the other 
hand, expresses the damage during each year from 1909 to 1919, 
inclusive, in terms of dollars, all the figures in this table applying to 
the country as a whole. 
The geographic divisions here used are designated as North 
Atlantic, South Atlantic, East North Central, West North Central, 
South Central, and Far West (fig. 1). 
