HAIL INSURANCE ON FARM CROPS. 7 
each of the next six years was less than one-half as great as that of 
1912. During each of these years it was found necessary to prorate 
the losses, the percentages paid being as follows : 1913, 88 per cent ; 
1914, 65 per cent; 1915, 75 per cent; 1916, 38 per cent; 1917, 62 per 
cent ; and 1918, 53 per cent. 
The rather discouraging experience on the part of North Dakota 
with its State hail insurance department under the law as first en- 
acted may be ascribed chiefly to two causes. In the first place, the 
premium charges provided for in the law were inadequate, such 
charges for the years 1911 and 1912 having been 20 cents per acre on 
$8 of insurance, making a rate of only 2J per cent, or exactly one- 
fourth of the rate now charged by joint-stock companies in the State. 
In the spring of 1913 the law was amended so as to make the rate of 
premium 30 cents per acre on $8 of insurance, or 3f per cent, at which 
figure the rate remained until the complete revision of the law in the 
spring of 1919. The other outstanding cause of failure of the origi- 
nal North Dakota plan was that applications for insurance had to be 
made to the assessor in the early spring and the premiums for such 
insurance advanced at that time, before any crops were actually in 
existence. 
In spite of this apparent failure of State hail insurance in North 
Dakota, the States of Montana and Nebraska enacted laws providing 
for State hail insurance departments in the spring of 1917. The Mon- 
tana department began operations shortly after the law was passed, 
but no insurance was written by the Nebraska department until the 
season of 1918. The premiums collected by the Montana department 
during its first year of operation amounted to $107,000, and the losses 
incurred were moderate, being only $62,000. Although the law per- 
mitted a maximum assessment of 60 cents per acre, the department 
assessed and collected hail premiums of only 40 cents per acre on 
$12 of insurance, being at a rate of 3 J per cent. With the funds so 
collected the department was able to pay its losses, together with ex- 
penses of operation, the latter amounting to $4,700, and to complete 
the year with a surplus of $40,000. This favorable beginning of State 
hail insurance in Montana in 1917 was, however, followed by a very 
trying experience in 1918. The losses this year were extremely heavy, 
caused largely by a severe and unusually extensive hail storm just at 
the time when the wheat was ripe and ready for harvest. The losses 
as adjusted approximated $870,000. The maximum levy of .60 cents 
per acre brought only a little over $400,000, and this amount, together 
with the small surplus from the preceding year, was only enough to 
pay 46 per cent of the losses. 
The Nebraska State hail insurance department during 1918, its 
first year, of operation, collected $154,260 in premiums. The law in 
this case provided fixed rates which varied from 25 cents per acre for 
