Housing 123 



It takes years of practical experience to put up a draught- 

 proof house, just as it takes years of practical experience 

 before you are able to get the best results in feeding. 



At the time I had those pullets in the oak grove I bought 

 a pen of fine poultry from a distant State. When they arrived 

 they were suffering from roup. These hens were also placed 

 in the house in the oak grove and in a short time they were 

 well. There was no more roup on the place as long as I 

 remained there. Fresh air, without draught, was too much 

 for the roup; where these conditions prevailed it could not 

 exist. 



Roup is so prevalent today that the State Legislature of 

 California has passed a law prohibiting the sale of any fowl 

 afflicted with the disease. Not long ago I was at a market 

 place and inspected 600 pullets six months old that were 

 for sale. At least 500 of them had roup. The owner of 

 these pullets said that they did not have it, but it was just 

 a little cold. He sold them to someone, for three days later 

 I saw that they were gone. 



When I moved near San Francisco I bought a large num- 

 ber of hens and put them in the poultry houses that were on 

 the place I rented. In a short time they had roup and 

 canker, although they were entirely free from roup when I 

 bought them. They kept gradually dying off. Some of them 

 had large canker sores in the mouths, some of which looked 

 like pieces of leather. 



The hens kept on dying, so one day I turned the whole 

 flock out to roost in the trees. It was summer time and 

 the weather was good. These trees were about 30 feet high 

 and very thick; they were so bushy that the wind did not 

 penetrate them at all. Now, the hens were in the fresh air 

 at all times, and although some of them were coughing very 

 badly when I put them out in a couple of months there was 



