I have just replaced my valve covers on my 56 272 and I noticed that there is no breather hole on either one of them like the original one did, which had a hole one of them. The old system had a hole in one valve cover for the breather that branches off into two hoses which both ran into the intake manifold. My question is is that original setup necessary or am i ok without it and just using my new valve covers? any help would be greatly appreciated

Sounds like your car came from California. That was a system added in the 1970's on all 1955 and later cars that didn't come with PCV systems. You might need to add those holes in your new covers because your road draft tube is probably blocked off. That was part of the modification.

http://ford-y-block.com 

20 miles east of San Diego, 20 miles north of Mexico

thanks and it does appear that the road draft tube is blocked off. Do you think that if i use an oil fill cap that also works as a breather that it would do the same job as using the valve cover breather? I would like to use valve covers with no hole on them because I like the look.

You will pressurize the crank case.Air comes IN the oil cap  and has nowhere to exit.You need to either re-install a road draft tube or hook up thr covers like they  were.The road draft tube was the exit originally.You could also install a PCV system if you change the valley pan to later T-Bird style which has draft tube outlet off the valley pan at rear.