HAIL INSURANCE ON FARM CROPS. 11 
indicates the amount of risks and the annual increase in business 
for each of the three groups of insurance institutions already dis- 
cussed, namely, mutual hail insurance companies, joint-stock fire in- 
surance companies, and State hail insurance departments. The fact 
that the risks in force by mutual companies continue to exceed those 
in force by joint-stock fire insurance companies until the year 191G, 
while the premiums received by the two groups of insurance insti- 
tutions change place at a considerably earlier date, is to be ex- 
plained in part by the uniformly lower rates charged by the mutuals. 
The prime reason, however, is to be found in the fact that a large 
percentage of the mutual risks occurred in States, such as Iowa, Min- 
nesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, where the hail hazard is less severe 
than in the States farther west and where the rates and premiums 
are on this account relatively small in proportion to the volume of 
risks. 
The total risks show T n for 1919 represent those of 41 mutual com- 
panies, 43 joint-stock companies, and 4 State hail insurance depart- 
ments. Of the $559,000,000 of hail risks in force during 1919, the 
joint-stock companies had almost exactly one-half, while the mutuals 
and the State hail insurance departments each had one- fourth. 
TERRITORIAL DISTRIBUTION. 
The territorial distribution of the hail insurance business is deter- 
mined mainly by two factors, namely, acreage in crops subject to 
damage and the severity of the hail hazard in relation to other hazards 
to which crops are exposed. In other words, hail insurance in large 
volume can be written only where there is a large acreage of crops 
to insure, and where at the same time the probability of destructive 
hail storms is present in such degree as to make the growers of crops 
conscious of the need for protection. These two factors coexist in a 
marked degree in the West North Central States. While from the 
point of view of acreage in crops subject to damage when hail does 
occur, a large percentage of the area of about three-fourths of the 
States would be insurable, the hail hazard in a considerable number 
of these States is relatively so slight as to preclude the taking of any 
special precaution against loss from this source. 
The acreage in crops in the different States, according to the census 
of 1910 is shown in figure 2. 1 Except for~ a few of the Western 
States, where there has been a marked increase in the crop acreage, 
this map represents the situation as to relative crop acreage in the 
different States very much as it exists at the present time. Later data 
of an accurate character will not be at hand until the results from the 
1920 census are available. 
1 Reproduced from Yearbook of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, 1915, p. 340. 
