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.