There are several exports that will always tend to make the Philippines rich. Tobacco is an important crop and the Manila leaf, as it is called, is of very fine quality. There are those who whisper it about that much of the leaf is shipped to Cuba to be made into "Havana" cigars. Sugar is also a great export crop, and when the railways now under way are completed sugar will become one of the foremost exports. The export of copra, or dried cocoanut, is a leading industry, and the Philippine Islands produce a large part of the world's product. One Philippine product, however, connects the islands with almost all the rest of the world, namely, Manila hemp. That is, it is called "hemp," but it is not hemp at all; the fibre is obtained from a plant very closely related to the banana. White leaves or husks grow closely around the stalk of the plant, forming a tightly fitting case. This envelope is composed of thousands of long, strong fibres that, when cleaned and dried, are the hemp that makes the strongest and best rope in the world. After the pulpy leaves are stripped from the stalk, the pulp is squeezed out of them and the fibres are left in the sun to dry. The best fibre is as soft and fine as silk. Some of it is used in making a fine cloth; the coarser fibre is used for rope and hawsers. More than fifteen million dollars worth of Manila hemp is sold yearly. In the treaty with Spain, by which Uncle Sam acquired the islands, twenty million dollars was paid to Spain. But the exports from the Philippines have averaged nearly thirty million dollars a year ever since. CHAPTER XXXII THE DUTCH EAST INDIES--JAVA The East India Islands is a name which embraces nearly all the islands of the Malay Archipelago, together with the Philippines. The largest of these are New Guinea, Borneo, Sumatra, Celebes, and Java. Nearly all of them, except the Philippines and parts of New Guinea and Borneo, are controlled by the Dutch. These fertile islands are a source of great revenue to the Netherlands; to the rest of the world they are the chief source of sugar, spices, and coffee. Of all the Dutch East Indies, Java is by far the most beautiful and productive; it is a garden of the choicest fruits and flowers. There are two seasons, a wet and a dry. During the wet season the torrential rains are accompanied by thunder and lightning. In some parts of the island more than a hundred thunder-storms occur yearly. The average rainfall is from sixty to one hundred and eighty-five inches, most of the rain falling on the windward side.