IN perusing the American Poultry Book, which we noticed in our October
No., we find the following recommendation for selecting a stock for the
poultry-yard:--
The better practice would seem to be, in order to make the
poultry-yard most profitable, to select _no particular breed_.
Commence with pullets and cocks of the first year, of all the breeds
mentioned above, except bantams, and without any regard to color
excepting those of a pure white. It would be well, if possible, to
select the cocks from the same yard. Every year exchange a nest-full
of eggs with your neighbors, or such as have good fowls. By pursuing
steadily this practice of exchanging eggs, you will yearly infuse new
blood into your stock, and avoid the inconvenience of breeding in and
in. Without being aware of this fact, many farmers find their stock
_running out_, &c.
Now the above plan for forming a stock for the poultry-yard we hold
to be perfectly absurd, and one might with just the same propriety,
advise mingling all the different breeds of horses or cattle together,
for the purpose of forming a good stock, as the different varieties
of fowls; and we need only consider for one moment, the incongruity
of the materials which form them, to be convinced of this. There is
the pugnacious Gamecock; the pheasant-shaped Top-knot; the coarse
Malay; the thick-skinned Negro-fowl; the tender Chinese or Merino;
the tailless Rumpless; the Friesland, with reversed feathers; the
short-legged Creeper; the five-toed Dorking; &c., &c.; all thrown
into one helter-skelter mass, the progeny of which would prove as
contemptible a race of mongrels as ever graced a dung-hill, and beyond
the precincts of a dung-hill they would scarcely be worth removing.
Those who have most eminently succeeded in breeding fowls, have
adopted the same course in doing so, which is followed by judicious
breeders of animals; and that is, by sticking to the breed, when it
is a good one, in its utmost purity; choosing the best of the flock
from which to propagate, and thus continuing. In-and-in breeding, to a
certain extent, when pursued by those who thoroughly understand their
business, has been productive of the best results. The finest, the
largest, and the most _indomitable_ game-cocks have thus been bred;
and if we possessed a good breed of poultry of any kind, we should be
very careful how we exchanged eggs with our neighbors for the purpose
of improving them. If they had a superior stock to our own, of the
same breed, we would select from among them grown birds only; we
should then know what we got, and be able to make improvements upon
those we already possessed. It is by mingling all sorts of breeds
together, without any definite notion as to the results, that "many
farmers find their stock _running out_"; and if every one were to
follow this course, we should soon be without a single good fowl in our
poultry-yards. We really regret to see a book like this on American
Poultry, which in the main is a good little work, recommend such a
course of breeding; for in our humble judgment it is the very worst
which could be pursued.
We can not say that we much like the author's advice either, as to the
choice of a cock. Why he should be "restless, not very large, with a
thick and stout bill, long spurs," &c., we can not divine. The best
cocks we ever kept, and those of the most indomitable courage, when
fighting was necessary, were the most quiet, attentive, and polite in
their seraglio: they were also of rather large size for their breed;
with fine heads, bills, feet, and legs.