128 The Truth About the Poultry Business 



fact, they were worse off than when I began because they 

 were shut up in the draught all day long, whereas formerly 

 they were in it only part of the time. I have never used 

 roup cures since and never expect to again. 



When cleaning the dropping-boards of this house every 

 morning, I noticed that sometimes the dust raised would 

 move in directions opposite to that in which the wind was 

 moving outside the building. This phenomenon mystified 

 me, and I could offer no explanation of it. On days when 

 the wind was blowing, this dust from the dropping-boards 

 would move faster than on days when there was no wind, 

 and during hard winds it would move very rapidly. The air 

 current moving the dust formed a draught, which, moving 

 in a direction opposite to the wind might be properly called 

 a back-draught. I watched this closely and became certain 

 that my hens were getting roup from this draught. The 

 question now was how to stop it. 



I read in some paper that you should have partitions in 

 your house to stop draught, although in the same paper it 

 had said a short time before that this kind of house could 

 not be draughty. Well, if partitions would stop the draught, 

 I would put them in. I put in partitions every ten feet. This 

 immediately stopped the wind from sweeping it from end to 

 end, but the draught still remained, although it whirled around 

 in a shorter space. A draught whirling around in a short 

 space is as bad as a draught that has a long sweep, so I did 

 not gain anything by putting in the partitions. I could easily 

 observe this short draught by watching the dust from the 

 dropping-boards when cleaning them. As I still found that 

 it moved in a backward direction, I nailed up part of the 

 front of the house and tried to ventilate it through the win- 

 dows. But I still had a draught. I tried to ventilate it in 



