A CAT RANCH.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17814, 13 July 1923, Page 11

A CAT RANCH.

—6 So long as there are silly Bheep in the world, so long will "ge-Urich-quick" merchants try to fleece them. The following is the scheme of a New York geniua, taken from an American paper: It is ft somewhat ancient proposition, but the stockbroker who handed it to ua confessed he had never seen it before. Thus do old swindles aways hnd fresh victims. The golden bait is thus dangled:—"Knowing that you are always interested in an opening in any investment in a good live business proposition, 1 take tne liberty or presenting to you wiiat seems to be an excellent wisinoss scheme, in- which you will no doubt take a lively interest. Kindly advise me the amount of etook you wish to subscribo towards forming a company tor the exploitation of this idea. This object or this company is to operate a large cat ranch near JNew York, where land can be purchased for this purpose. To start with we shall collect, say, about 100,000 cats. Each cat will average 12 kittens a year. The skins will sell for fid for the white ones, and over 3s for the black. There will be about 13,000,0C0 skins to sell at the average price of 30 cents apiece, milking our average about £2OOO a day gross. A man can skin 60 oats a day; he will charge 8s a day for his labour. It will take 100 men to operate this ranch; therefore, the profit will be about £1,900 a day. We shall feed the cats on rats, and start a rat ranch adjoining the oat ranch. The rats will multiply four times as fast as the cats, and if we start with 100,000 rats we shall have four rats a day for oacli cat, which is plenty. In turn wo shall feed the rats on "the stripped carcases of the cats, thus giving each rat a quarter of the cat. It will be seen by these figures that the business 13 self-acting and automatical. The cats will eat the rats, and the rats will eat the cats, and we shall get the skins. \es, and anyone who sends any money to this ingenuous gentleman will probably get "atung"