132 The Truth About the Poultry Business 



for years. I had plenty of light in the house, as I had ten 

 large skylights in the roof. 



Here at last I had a house that was draught-proof, except- 

 ing that it was made of boards and battens and a little 

 draught would come in between the cracks. This was shown 

 by the fact that the hens had a little more roup on days 

 when the wind was extremely hard. Otherwise this house 

 was draught-proof, although it was not my perfected roup- 

 proof house. It was just a regular poultry house, made 

 tight. This house is still in existence, and I invite anyone 

 who wishes to learn something about draughts to see it. 



The hens began to show improvement by getting over the 

 roup. 



Although roup did not bother me very much thereafter, 

 the hens did not do quite so well as those that in a previous 

 instance I had put out in the trees to roost. 



I now took the feathered threads and made a great many 

 experiments with them inside the house. I found that the 

 house was draught-proof, excepting on the windiest days. At 

 last, after years of experimenting, I had been able to accom- 

 plish something. I had solved the problem of draughts, not 

 by using a new building of a particular type, not by using 

 roup cures, but by getting down to the faults in the con- 

 struction of buildings and by correcting those faults, provid- 

 ing draught-proof conditions. 



Summer coming on, it began to get warm, and on hot days 

 the heat inside the building was stifling; there being no 

 circulation of air inside the building, it was awful, and I 

 could hardly go into it. The heat would have been very 

 bad without any hens in it, but with the added heat thrown 

 off by the bodies of a large number of hens it was terrific. 

 When I would come out of the building I would be perspiring 

 profusely. 



