INSURANCE OF STANDING TIMBER REGARDED AS FEASIBLE.
Standing timber is one fire risk that hitherto has not been regarded with favor by the fire insurance companies. Some insurance of this sort has been written in Canada by the London Lloyds on separate limited tracts and an excess loss only, the insured bearing all losses below this limit. The Phoenix Insurance Co., of London, is, however, this year writing some insurance upon green standing timber in Oregon and Washington, with certain restrictions, and at rates varying from 1 and 1½ per cent. The timber must be accessible to markets, not unduly exposed to fire hazard, and only one risk is taken in each fire zone or area indicated by the Company. No risk is written greater than $17,500 in any one such area.
W. R. Brown in an article on this subject in “American Forestry” goes in to some detail in discussing the possibilities of this subject. He summarizes the fire experiences within the territory of various fire prevention associations, and his figures include the 22,000,000 acres under the supervision of E. C. Allen in the twelve western private fire prevention associations which he supervises; the New Hampshire Timberland Owners’ Association with 1,000,000 acres; the Northern Fire Protective Association of Michigan with 2,000,000 acres; the St. Maurice Valley Fire Protective Association of Quebec with an area of 8,000,000 acres—the total of the four associations being 33,000,000 acres. The expenditure for forest ranging and fire prevention is approximately 1 cent an acre for the first three and ¼ cent an acre for the Canadian organization. In the western associations the fire loss for the year 1910 was one-half of 1 per cent. In each association since that time it has been much less than that figure, except for 1914 in the Canadian association, when one fire got away and the fire loss of the year was three-fourths of 1 per cent. upon the timber valuation. Taking all four areas together and summarizing the figures for each which Mr. Allen gives, the average yearly losses respectively were as follows:
1910, .005; 1911, .000171; 1912, .0002328; 1913, .0012636; 1914, .00253; 1915, .00427.
The writer concludes from these figures that in such protective areas fire insurance should cost for the loss ratio not over one-half per cent. annually, with another one-half per cent. added for administration cost of the insurance plan. He gives some further experience upon which to base this conclusion. In Minnesota during the last ten years, with its forest wealth of $280,000,000, the average fire loss has been about $100,000 or one-thirty-fourth of 1 per cent. annually.—American Lumberman.
PAPER CLOTHES.
A new German textile in which paper is spun with about 20 per cent. of cotton is being exhibited in Copenhagen.
Unspun cotton in the form of down is glued to one side of endless rolls of paper and the paper is then shorn into narrow bands, which are spun with the cotton side outwards.