be specially insured by itself.

Insurances should never be made for a greater
sum than the value of the property insured, as it
would be paying more premium for no purpose.
The offices take good care that they pay no more
than the actual value of the property destroyed,
which they have the means of ascertaining with
some degree of accuracy.

It has been found necessary to subject the
insurance of farming stock to special conditions.
A farmer having stock of the value, say, of
£1,000, might reason in this way: "My ricks,
implements, crops, &c., are situated widely
apart, and it is difficult to imagine that all could
be consumed in one and the same fire; therefore,
I will insure the whole stock for £500 only, then
I shall have to pay only half the amount in the
premium I should be liable for in case I insured
to the full value." The offices are, however, quite
alive to this kind of reasoning, and frustrate
the intention by inserting what is called the
"average" clause in the policy, the effect of
which is that in the event of a claim being made
for loss by fire, only one half of the value would
be made because only one half of the value of the
stock was insured. Live stock, however, may be
separately insured without the average clause,
and animals killed by lightning are paid for if