An evaporative cooling system and a method of cooling a poultry house includes at least one evaporative cooling pad, a bracket extruded from a lightweight, plastic or galvanized steel for supporting the evaporative cooling pad adjacent an opening formed in the sidewall of the poultry house, and an improved device for wetting the evaporative cooling pad. The bracket includes a base, an attachment leg depending from one side of the base, and a pair of retaining legs spaced sufficiently from the attachment leg and depending from the one side of the base. The retaining legs are spaced sufficiently from the attachment leg to permit a ventilation curtain mounted to the sidewall of the poultry house to be raised and lowered without interference from the bracket and the evaporative cooling pads. The evaporative cooling system further includes an automatic control apparatus including a programmable logic controller (PLC), a timer, and a solenoid. A humidistat is located remotely from the evaporative cooling pads in communication with the ambient air outside the poultry house, and is electrically coupled to the PLC. A supply of liquid, such as water, is in fluid communication with the solenoid so that when the solenoid is open, the water is delivered to the wetting apparatus. In a preferred embodiment, the wetting apparatus is a conventional soak hose, and the PLC is programmed to open the solenoid for a predetermined interval of time each minute in response to an electrical output signal from the humidistat which is in proportion to the relative humidity of the ambient air outside the poultry house.
