WONDERFUL HENS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20472, 25 January 1930, Page 3 (Supplement)

WONDERFUL HENS.

SWINDLER'S " SECRET."

EGG A DAY FOR FIVE YEARS.

A story of a secret schema to make hens in England lay an egg every day was told at the Winchester Assizes, when Frederick Hardy Ruffle, aged 71, a poultry farmer, of Farlington, near Portsmouth, was charged with obtaining by false pretences £SOO from Mr. John A. Musson, and £250 each from Mr. Bernard E. Mays, Mr. Edward J. Morgan, and Mr. William H. Bridges. It was stated that Ruffle induced the men to hand over their life savings by telling them that he had a secret process of feeding which would make a hen lay an egg every day. Each hen, thus, would produce 365 egg 3 a year for five years running without moulting. Mr. Musson said he was now out of work and living on charity. Mr. Bridges said Ruffle told him that his process would make hens lay more eggs in the winter than in the summer. His notepaper bore the words: "This is the only poultry farm of its kind in England." Mr. Justice Charles: I should think it was.

Mr. H. G. Cambridge, a poultry farmer, of Hayling Island, said Ruffle had 120 poor class birds which would not average more than 120 eggs a year. It was impossible to get 365 eggs from any bird in a year, and he would like to know the man's secret.

Mr. Justice Charles: He i 3 in the dock; ask him.

Ruffle said he had had 12 years' experience as a poultry farmer in the United States and Canada. He knew a farm in California where six eggs a week were got from each hen all the year round. "You must not let a hen know the difference between summer and winter, and you can get an egg every day,", he continued.

Mr. JusticQ Charles: Do you know any hens that lay three a day?— No. Ruffle, who had many convictions and was an undischarged bankrupt, was sentenced to three years' penal servitude.