HAIL INSURANCE ON FARM CROPS. 6 
stock fire insurance company had begun to write hail insurance. 
The total hail premiums reported for these two companies in 1905 
were approximately equal to the amount collected by the mutual 
companies, or about three-fourths of a million dollars. 
By 1910 the total number of mutual hail insurance companies had 
decreased to 28, as against 37 in 1905. The total premiums for the 
year, however, showed a considerable increase, being more than 
$1,000,000. Of the hail mutuals reported by State insurance 'depart- 
ments in 1910, one was located in Connecticut, five in Wisconsin, 
four in Minnesota, nine in Iowa, one in North Dakota, two in Ne- 
braska, three in Kansas, two in Oklahoma, and one in Montana. 
Two of the Minnesota hail mutuals wrote insurance in Kansas and 
Montana, as well as in their home States, and one of these companies 
wrote also in North Dakota. In later years these same Minnesota 
mutuals have been doing business in several States, and a few of the 
Iowa companies have also been admitted to neighboring States. 
At least five joint-stock companies were writing hail insurance on 
growing crops by 1910. The total hail premiums received by this 
class of companies for the year, so far as these figures have been 
obtained, were approximately the same as those reported for the 
year 1905, or about $750,000, though they exceeded this amount in 
some of the intervening years. During this five-year period, there- 
fore, the mutual hail insurance companies had made a material 
growth, while the hail business of joint-stock fire insurance com- 
panies had been approximate^ stationary. 
In the five-year period following 1910 the hail insurance business 
in the United States advanced by rapid strides. The number of 
mutual companies increased to 39. Their total premiums in 1915 
exceeded $3,336,000, and were thus more than three times as great 
as in 1910. Although the mutual hail insurance companies thus 
made a "material advance in the five years from 1910 to 1915, the hail 
business of the joint-stock fire insurance companies showed a far 
greater advance. The total number of such companies in the field 
increased from 5 to 35, while their total hail premiums in 1915 
amounted to approximately $6,400,000, as against three- fourths of a 
million for 1910. 
The year 1915, as will be brought out later in this bulletin, was 
an extremely severe one from the point of view of hail losses. A 
number of the mutual companies, as on various previous occasions, 
were caught without adequate reserves or other resources and had 
to prorate their losses. As a result, mutual hail insurance suffered a 
severe setback, this being particularly true in the State of Kansas. 
During the season of 1916 only 35 mutual companies were in the field, 
and the premiums collected by the mutuals in this year amounted to 
only about two-thirds the total premiums collected by this group of 
