Scientific commissions appointed by the Austrian and Italian governments conducted long series of tests of the methods of bombarding the clouds with mortars, bombs, and rockets, and declared them to be of no value. The erection of hail rods, though it has received a certain amount of official encouragement in France, is also strongly discountenanced by the majority of scientific men, as well as by a large proportion of intelligent agriculturists. Reports on the actual operation of the rods support conflicting opinions--as might be expected from the fact that the hailstorm is a decidedly erratic phenomenon. Thus, some observers claim that the storm clouds change conspicuously in appearance as they approach a “Niagara,” and if they shed hail upon the spot it is in a soft and harmless form. Others deny the accuracy of these observations, and point to the stubborn fact that ordinary hail has fallen on several of the rods themselves, including the one on the Eiffel Tower. In the suburbs of Clermont-Ferrand a “Niagara” is installed on an iron tower, 100 feet high. This rod was pelted with hail twice in 1912 and four times in 1913, and in one case the hailstones attained the size of hen’s eggs! Nobody has ever offered any plausible scientific hypothesis to explain why these rods should have an effect upon hail, even if they are able, as seems unlikely, to reduce the electrical charge of the clouds; since the formation of hail is due to movements of the air, which, in turn, are the cause and not the result of the charge in question. Fortunately for the farmer and the horticulturist--especially in Europe--a method of averting the losses due to hailstorms is available in the shape of insurance, and its cost is decidedly less than that entailed in systematic hail-shooting or in the general erection of hail rods. Hailstorm insurance has been extensively practiced in the Old World since the end of the eighteenth century. In some countries it has been conducted or subsidized by the government. Generally each country is divided into a number of zones, according to the recorded frequency of hailstorms, and the premiums vary proportionately. Premiums also vary for different crops, since some are better able to withstand the effects of hail than others. The amount of insurance of this kind carried in Germany, alone, shortly before the World War, was more than $800,000,000. Hailstorm insurance is fairly common in the United States, especially in the Middle West, but still lacks an adequate statistical basis in the shape of detailed records of hail frequency. In 1919 growing crops in this country were insured against hail to the extent of $559,134,000. Much information on this subject will be found in V. N. Valgren’s “Hail Insurance on Farm Crops in the United States” (U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Bulletin 912), published in 1920.