The Cat and Rat Ranch

Long before the Nigerian scams there was the cat and rat ranch prospectus.

In 1875 Willis B. Powell, editor of a newspaper in Lacon, Illinois, supplied to Associated Press details about a ranch based on rats and cats.  The item consisted of a prospectus inviting investment in the ranch.  The prospectus was given credibility by the facty that it had been published by Associated P{ress.  It wasn’t until 1940 that it was revealed to be a hoax

The prospectus:

Glorious Opportunity To Get Rich!!! 

We are starting a cat ranch in Lacon with 100,000 cats. Each cat will average 12 kittens a year. The cat skins will sell for 30 cents each. One hundred men can skin 5,000 cats a day. We figure a daily net profit of over $10,000. Now what shall we feed the cats? We will start a rat farm next door with 1,000,000 rats. The rats breed 12 times faster than the cats. So we will have four rats to feed each day to each cat. 

Now what shall we feed the rats? 

We will feed the rats the carcasses of the cats after they have been skinned. 

Now Get This! 

We feed the rats to the cats and the cats to the rats and get the cat skins for nothing!