THE NEW-YORK EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATED.

-' outs ide of the ditch is an earth wall, which here, where it forms the sidet 6 canfd > is four or five yards across, but on the other sides is not more thanwo or three yards thick at the bottom and one on the top. In the trunk therere two gates, with rachet work and levers for adjusting them at the top. Thee is further divided, as has been described, by minor ditches into quarter-acre0 ^ ou m ay find here a crop of oat's just springing through the ground, for.^withstanding the exceedingly great original fertility of this swamp-land, and theontinual addition of fertile material, which it doubtless receives from the water^ w hich it is irrigated, it is found that it will not bear heavy crops of rice forVer ) and that it increases the subsequent product very much if other crops areccasionally introduced, particularly if manure is added with them, or if they areemselves of a character to increase the fertility of the soil. The cow-pea is^equently used for this purpose; the whole crop, when it has ripened, beingP oughed in, or fed off on the land. Corn, oats, and sea-island cotton, are alsopmetimes cultivated very profitably upon rice ground. Oats, when sowed uponOce ground, are sometimes flowed. This operation tends to produce a very rankgrowth of straw, and as the crop is used like hay, to be, fed to horses withoutreshing, in a dry season it is of considerable advantage to it.

By walking along the top of the cross embankments you come to the outerelds, in one of which you find fifty negroes, men and women, at work, and in6 ether some half dozen. Between the two is the overseer. He walks tole outer, or river-side embankment, and by bis shouts seems to be hastening the ;

. dozen hands in the field on your right. This, if you look closely, you willsee is covered, in each of its plots, with parallel lines of shallow trenches or drills,which rice in the hull has been thickly scattered. In the field on the left theud» are making these trenches with narrow hoes; they are thirteen inches apart,Wo inches deep, and four wide. Those in the right-hand field are sowing thesee d in the last square, which they do by quick throws of the hands witli great®xpertness.

We walk on till we come to where the overseer is standing. lie tells theP anter that lie has hoisted the gate and the tide will be flowing in before thesowing is well done. But how is this ? you inquire. Is the water to be let on to the. e d before the seed is covered ? Yes, examine the seed and you will see that there18 a sb'ght coating of clay upon it, scarcely perceptible: it has been prepared bygashing in water in which clay has been stirred, and this is sufficient to keep it inlts Pla-oei when the water from the river shall flow over it, as you shall presently8ee ’ for now the water coming in at the gate as the tide rises, first fills then over-tvs the ditches, and now as the sowers have all completed their work and leavee field, it steals along the drills and at length begins to cover the surface. Somes tiaw, leaves and stubble, rise upon the water and drift with the wind toward thehver embankment. When it has ail reached there, it will bo raked out, thrownlnto heaps, and as soon as again dry, bnrned, to destroy any seeds that may be in it.

As soon as ail the elevated parts of the field (for the water shows that its^trface is not a perfect plane) are covered, the overseer shuts down the gate.

. 11 a f ew days, if the weather is warm, the seed will sprout under the water.an advantage of the mode of planting called planting in the open trench, thatcool weather should occur for some time after planting, the seed is much lessable to rot and be lost than when it has been first covered with earth. In thetter case, seed is not clayed, and is lightly covered by raking earth over it:Y'ater is then let on as open-trench planting. Why the seed should be more liablerot in one case than the other is not known, perhaps light has the effect to re-^ard rapid decomposition.

^hen the seed has been first covered with soil, as soon as it is seen to haves Prouted, the water is drawn off, but on the open-trench plan it is left on untilt; ’' v o leaves are developed, which will perhaps be in a fortnight after our visit.

Turning now to the field on the other side of the trench, you perceive that allands are engaged in opening trenches or seed-drills. They will not commenceP anting this field until to-morrow, or until they are sure they will be able tob'sh it before the following rise of tide, so that the seed may be immediatelyProtected from birds by flowing it.

Walking round the outside of the field you find several men filling up a trenchat they had opened directly across the main embankment. An alligator had^arrowed under it so that it leaked, and to fill his hole completely and securelynecessary to open a trench to. it from the top.

Constant attention is required to keep the embankments in order. Sometimestn 611 ^ lere i® a bad breach, such as a severe storm coincident with a flood ofe river might have made in this place, it is necessary to bring earth from thea Pland to fill it up.

As you walk back towards the barn, you inquire about the subsequent culturethe rice, and are informed that soon after the water is drawn off, the whole“ will be hoed between the trenches to destroy the weeds, and two or threelater will be hoed again, the water seldom being admitted during this time,th e ess for a Single tide to soften the earth if it: shouI(i S et ver T dl Y or hard - Aftersecond hoeing the field is flowed again so as almost to cover the rice generally®r the field, the rice being probably eight or ten inches high at the time. Theer is left on for perhaps two weeks; it depends on the appearance of the plants,

sometimes longer, sometimes a shorter time. Soon after it is drawn off, the riceis twice hoed again as before; then the water is let on again, and is now kept onuntil harvest, being gradually raised as the rice grows higher, so that over aslarge an extent of it as possible only the hoads of rice shall appear above. Ingenera] terms it may be said that the rice is kept in water (the tops of the plantsappearing always above it) as much as possible from the day it is sowed until it isripe, so far as it can be, and give opportunity for keeping it clean of weeds.Some planters keep the water on more than those who follow the plan we havedescribed, and the negroes are often sent in to pull the weeds by hand when tliowater is a foot deep on the ground. One objection to retaining the water so con-stantly upon the field is that the crop is moro liable to be injured by a small whiteworm, to tlio attacks of which it is always moro or less subject. Those who al-ways give the crop four dry hoeings, also think that the laborers suffer moro inhealth when they are obliged to work much in the water. Others contend thatthey suffer less because the labor is lighter. Under every plan it is usual at sometime during the last or “ lay by ” flow to lower the water to the depth of, atmost, a foot, and send in the negroes to collect iveeds growing in the drills withthe rice, these not being all eradicated in the hoeings.

As soon as the rice is judged to be sufficiently matured for its harvest to com-mence, the water is drawn off, and immediately, even while the water is still somoinches deep, the negroes commence to reap it with sickles. It is cut off at abouta foot from the root, and the reaped rice is laid in handfuls, as it is cut, on thetop of the stubble, so that it will be support^! above the mud and dry quickly.Usually it is dry enough to bind in twenty-four hours after it is cut, when it istied in small sheaves and immediately transported on the heads of the laborers,either directly to tho stack yard or to the scows by which it is boated throughthe canal. It is then laid up in neat round stacks, which are thatched so as tokeep it dry and in good order until it can be threshed. The usual cropfrom an acre is from thirty to sixty bushels. By resting tho land, or introducinga dry culture crop, particularly if this is manured, or is itself a manuring crop, astill larger crop of rice may be afterwards obtained—even 100 bushels.

Bice is threshed by machinery precisely similar to that used for other grain at theNorth and in England. On tlio larger plantations steam is employed to drive it.After threshing, the grain of rice is still enveloped in a close, hard, brown husk.In this condition it is known as paddy , or rougli rice, and as when thus protected it isless liable to injury from dampness or atmospheric changes, it is usually exportedwith the husk remaining on. There arc mills for removing it in most of thelarge commercial ports of the Northern States and of Europe. In many of tholatter, discriminating duties in favor of rough rice are laid to favor this business.Tlio busk is cracked by slightly pounding the grain, and subsequently removedby riddling. The rice is afterwards sorted into a number of different classes ac-cording to size, tlie largest and fullest grains, called “ head rice,” being consideredthe best, and the broken and smaller less valuable. The best rice before leavingthe rice-mill is subjected to an ingenious process, by which it receives a highIt I polish, and is thus presented to tho consumer with a very cloar and beautiful ap-pearance. Some very handsome rice (for a European production) grown on thoestate of the Marquis Torniclli, in Sardinia, will attract attention in the Italiandepartment of the Exhibition. It is prepared by a new process, tho invention ofSignor Uglietta, of Novara.

FOLIACEOUS FIBKES OE AMERICAN ENDOGENOUS PLANTS.

A MONG the elements of future wealth in the United States, we call tho atten-tion of our readers to the resources which lie undeveloped in the foliaceousfibres of the endogenous plants, that are native to this country or may be grownhere. A fino collection of fibres derived from plants of this character, may boseen in the Exhibition among tho contributions of British Guiana, and of Hayti.The specimens consist of fibres in several stages of preparation, and of the articlesmanufactured from them.

All vegetable fibres used for textile purposes may be classified into tlireo groatdivisions; cortical fibres, of which flax and hemp are familiar examples; capsularfibres, like cotton; and foliaceous fibres, which aro illustrated by tbo examples al-ready mentioned, and by Manilla hemp, silk grass, &c. The stems of the plantsproducing cortical fibres consist essentially of a woody core, surrounded by asheath of fibrous texture, and the two are connected together by a peculiar vege-table glue, which unites them into one solid stem. In tho preparation of flaxand hemp, the object in view is to remove this mattor, and thus bring about theseparation of the useless stem from the valuable external sheathing of fibres.Capsular fibres, as the name indicates, aro obtained from pods or capsules. Cot-ton, the type of this class, is found in the capsules of tho Gossypium, envelopingthe seeds and closely adhering to them. The fibres of cotton are always short,soft, and of a white or yellow color; under the microscope they present theappearance of a flattened ribbon, which is at tho same time tubular. Foliaceousfibres are obtained from green living leaves, the produce of endogenous plants;

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