Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1916-10-16
Farm Insurance.

rOuIt hluuo VI plOpClLy Hloul ahSV
are written in which the farmer is
particularly interested. These are
insurance of buildings and personal
property against loss by fire or
lightning, insurance of the same OBJ
iects against loss by windstorm, in
surance of growing crops against
{, hail, and insurance of livestock
against death by disease or accident.
To the average farmer the first
two kinds of insurance usually make
the strongest appeal. One reason
for this is doubtless the feeling that
fire and windstorm are the destruc.
tive agencies that most frequently, at
a single stroke, deprive their victims
of the accumulated earnings of many
years. Perhaps second reason why
farmers usually first provide them
selves with fire and windstorm in
surance is the fact that these are, as
a rule, relatively less expensive than
the other two kinds of insurance
here considered. By this is meant
that a larger percentage of the mon
ey collected from the insured can be
used to compensate the sufferers of
loss than is the case with hail or
livestock insurance. A simpler or
ganization is possible, and fraudu-
lent claims are more easily guarded
against.
The fact that hail and livestock
insurance are less generally carried
by the farmers of the United States
does not signify that these forms of
production are not important. I'm
der certain circumstances and condi-
tions they may even outrank in i'm
portance the other two. AS the
American farmer learns to make of
agriculture more strictly science,
and to eliminate, as far as possible,
the element of chance, he will
doubtless insist on the further devel-
opment of all the kinds of insurance
here enumerated, and perhaps of
still others.
Few farmers are so rich that they
can wisely go without insurance.
Happily few are so poor that they
are compelled to go without safe
guard that to the average farmer
may be classed as a necessity. The
very farmer who has but few build
ings and little personal property, and
is perhaps least able to pay for in
surance protection, is really the one
who can least afford to go without
it. Hence the importance of making
insurance as cheap as it is possible
to make it and yet have it efficient
and dependable.
About two-fifths Of the farmers in
the United States have found a
method Of providing themselves with
| fire insurance at greatly reduced
cost through mutual or cooperative
insurance associations, embracing a
single county or some such limited
territory. Dependable and cheap
windstorm insurance has similarly
been provided by means of larger
mutual companies, often operating
in close relationship with the local
fire insurance mutuals. Local wind
storm insurance companies have,
however, in several instances, been
taught by experience, and to their
own sorrow, that while each group
of farm buildings and to a consider
able extent each building within the
group constitutes separate and dis
tinct risk so far as the fire hazard
is concerned, the same is not true
with reference to the windstorm
hazard Safety and stability in
windstorm insurance demand that
the amount of insurance be large
and the risks widely scattered. The
same is true of hail insurance.
A smaller number of farmers have
also provided themselves with hail
and livestock insurance by means of
mutual associations. While a num-
ber of these associations have a sue
cessful record covering many years,
companies representing these kinds
of insurance have been less generally
successful than have farmers mu-
tual fire insurance and windstorm
insurance companies. Some of the
reasons for this difference in success
have already been suggested.
Not infrequently letters come to
the department relating stories of
hardships due to losses of property
not covered by insurance, and ask
ing if some provision does not exist
by which the department can aid de-
serving farmers who have met with
special disaster to their property.
The answer to such inquiries must,
of course, be in the negative.
The Office of Markets and Rural
Organization of the department has
undertaken a careful study of vari-
Gus kinds of property insurance of