BREEDS OF FOWLS.—NEW YORK FARMERS’ CLUB. 
325 
could not break down, we should advise our 
friends to eschew keeping buffaloes. 
BREEDS OF FOWLS. 
In perusing the American Poultry Book, which 
we noticed in our October No., we find the follow¬ 
ing 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 ex¬ 
changing 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 v 
&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 cat¬ 
tle together, for the purpose of forming a good 
stock, as the different varieties of fowls; and we 
need only consider for one moment, the incongru¬ 
ity of the materials which form them, to be con¬ 
vinced of this. There is the pugnacious Game¬ 
cock; the pheasant-shaped Top-knot; the coarse 
Malay; the thick-skinned Negro-fowl; the tender 
Chinese or Merino; the tailless Bumpless; the 
Friesland, with reversed feathers; the short-leg¬ 
ged 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 ; choos¬ 
ing the best of the flock from which to propagate, 
and thus continuing. In-and-in breeding, to a cer¬ 
tain 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 exchang¬ 
ed eggs with our neighbors for the purpose of im¬ 
proving 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 improve¬ 
ments upon those we already possessed. It is by 
mingling all sorts of breeds together, without any 
definite notion as to the results, that “ many farm¬ 
ers 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 in¬ 
domitable 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* 
NEW YORK FARMERS’ CLUB. 
The Farmers’ Club resumed their meetings, on 
Tuesday, Nov. 13th, at the Repository of the Amer¬ 
ican Institute. 
The meeting commenced by reading a commu¬ 
nication from the President of the Manhattan Gas 
Light Company, David C. Colden, Esq., inviting 
the attention of farmers, and all interested in agri¬ 
culture, to the value of the refuse of gas-works as 
manure. Extracts from the works of Liebig, and 
Johnston were then read, setting forth the power¬ 
ful fertilizing properties of ammoniacal liquor, 
with which the refuse of gas-works is found to be 
strongly impregnated. After some conversation, 
on the subject, in which Mr. Stevens, Commodore 
De Kay, Mr. Meigs, and Mr. Wakeman, took part, 
as to the best method of disposing of this com¬ 
munication, it was resolved that it be referred to 
a committee consisting of Gen. Tallmadge, Mr. 
Prince, Gen. Johnson, Col. Clarke, and Mr. Town¬ 
send, to report at the next meeting of the club. 
Mr. William R. Prince, of Flushing, presented 
to the meeting, specimens of nineteen different va¬ 
rieties of apples, among which were several of 
very large size and superior quality. 
Mr. Meigs presented seeds of a new variety of 
squash, the Cucurbitur bicolor. 
Mr. Ward, cuttings from a vine which produced 
ripe Isabella grapes on the 5th September. 
