The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-01-15
NEW SPINDLE EXPOSED
"REDn ALBUMEN WON'T MAKE
 HENS LAY IN WINTER
Big Demand for Worthless Stuff at soc . Pound-Farmers in West Bite-The Agricultural Depart-
 ment Takes up Investigation.

St. Louis Globe Democrat.
 The weIl-known perversity of the barn yard hen to lay eggs in the spring time
 when eggs are plentiful and to lay OH laying eggs in winter when they are worth forty cents a dozen, being one of the grievances of the American farmers has led to a new form of swindling which the Meyer Drug Company of this city, has been instrumental in undoing. By means of a letter innocently published in the columns of a St. Louis newspaper, but craftily sent to the editor with cupi- dity aforethought to gull the simple farm- CT, a sudden demand has sprung up in the drug trade for a substance which does not exist in reality, but which,, if fed to hens, will correct this foolish habit of laying of eggs only in Easter time.
 Farmers have been for years on the hunt for some means of persuading hen to lav to suit the market. Some may remember how their grandfathers advised the preparation of parched corn to a certain degree of brownness to be fed to the hen at the proper hour, this to be followed by a race up the hill after the well-fed hen after which the eggs would come rolling down to suit. Then there was the disappearing nest-egg dodge which had its day. which provided for a nest DulIL WltH d tTdpuOoT tO iCb oOWh the eggs just as the hen began to cacSlc. On turning around, the ambitious fowl, seeing no egg, would take to the nest again for another cackle. Once a man down in Jersey made an artificial egg out of a substance that was cheap when eggs were dear and which he warranted to do everything in the category of eggs but hatch. These and other forms of the gold-brick swindle all have their origin in the longings which exists ip the farmers heart for eggs when the chickens are taking their winter vaca. tion, and it is safe to promise that tho man who invents a real, genuine article warranted to pass inspection at the ag- ricultural bureau, and to accomplish this will have nothing to do but count his income for the rest of his life.
 , The letter referred to appeared during December. 1t purported to be a letter of advice from a medical student based on the experience of his professor Of chemistry as to how\to make hen lay in and out of season, simply by giving her liberal supply of "red albumen. Albumen. Is not red, 1t is colorless, and the term "red albumen" is self-contra- dictory and no expert chemist could be fooled by it. But the student gave full directions as to how the stun was to be mixed with red pepper and meal and fed. a quart day to so many hens, with astonishing results, which had made his own brothers and cousins rich
 This letter was reprinted by the swindlers in the form of a circular and sent broadcast over tho country. A company in Ohio which proposed to sup ply red" albumen spent a big sum in this kind of advertising. The results must have astonished the swindlers them- selves. The circular is not yet month old, but such a demand has arisen for the stuff advertised that several imitators have gone into the business of supplying the 'red" albumen in unlimited quanti- ties. This is easy, for the experiment station at Cornell University, on analy- sis, found it to consist of red paint and sand, which would naturally fail to satis- fy the most conscientious hen.
 In less than a week after the publica- ton of the letter the St. Louis drug houses began to get ordere from their country customers for ''red" albumen, Orders came in for liberal supplies. and as the advertised price at retail was 60 cents a pound. the situation began to assume importance, from a financial standpoint. But the buyers in the drug houses never heard of red" alhumen, and they asked their customers for par taculars. Some one sent in circular which had been issued by red" aipu- men house in Indiana to the Meyer Drug Company, and this was turned over 10 MT. John F. Queeny, of that concern, for investigation. This circular quoted the Secretary of Agriculture as endorsing the stuff and MT. Queeny at once wrote to Secretary Wilson for information His letter went out just before Christmas and immediately a telegraphic answer came back from the Secretary warning MT. Queeny that ''red albunien is a fraud.
 Later advces came to the enect that
 the Postofiice Department had lnsu' tuted measures to stop the mail of sev- eral firms sending out advertising mat ter for the red albumen. Dlrector Jor- don of Cornell Experimental station lie against the fraud. This circutar states that the demand for red albumen is so great that many drusglsts nave substituted some other comblnalon or sand and oxide of iron which they send out to satisfy the trade. Even conselen1 tious drug men have been so besiegeo with orders that they would nave been compelled to take this course. .4
 They instruct their travelling men that the stuff is a fraud and that its use Is to be discouraged but if the customer insists on ordering 1t the house writes to inform him that the red aloalnSih but can be supplied by forwarding or the order to some one Of the houses which advertise to supply 1t. MY. Queeny stated yesterday that the Meyer Drug Company had been driven to this course by the demand from their trade One of their men recently sent in forty orders for red albumen in one week. Within the past week a large manufact55 uring company of Chicago has issued a circular quoting a rcd blood albu- men for poultry food This, it states, contains s6 per cent. of protein matter and is much superior to the red-paint compound which sells at 60 cents pound. This red blood albumen the Chi cago house quotes at 10 cents pound: Here is the latest quotation from one or the red albumen advertisement: ,,
 Red albumen will make hens lay all winter, no matter how cold 1t may be. Retails at 50 cents Q pound, wholesale