[5] Journal of Morphology, vol. v.
Fig. 9. An Alligator’s Nest, Somewhat Smaller than the One Represented in Fig. 8, Built Chiefly of Flags.
The nest has been opened to show the irregularly arranged mass of eggs inside. The size and shape of the egg are shown by the one in the guide’s hand. (From a Photograph by the Author.)
Economic Importance.
[6] More than one hundred years ago attempts were made to utilize the skin of the alligator, but it was not until about 1855 that these attempts were successful and alligator leather became somewhat fashionable and some thousands of hides were converted into leather. The demand was short-lived, however, and was not again felt until the demand for shoe-leather during the war between the States revived the business. At the close of the war the business again failed, but about 1869 the demand became greater than ever and has continued unabated to the present time. The supply of skins from our own States proving inadequate, large numbers of skins were soon imported from Mexico and Central America. The skins from South America are so heavy that they are of little value in making leather. Of the States of the Union, Florida has been the chief producer, the most important centers for hides being Cocoa, Melbourne, Fort Pierce, Miami, and Kissimmee. Ten men at the first-named place took, in 1899-1900, 2500 skins; one man took 800 skins in one year; another man collected 42 skins in one night. At Fort Pierce twelve men took 4000 skins in 1889. In 1899, three firms at Kissimmee handled 33,600 hides. After this time the total number of hides taken and the average per man diminished greatly.
[6] The following figures are from an article by C. H. Stevenson in the Report of the Bureau of Fisheries, 1902, pp. 283-352.
Besides being killed for their hides, the alligators have been destroyed by the thousands merely for wanton sport, so that in 1902 it was estimated that their numbers in Florida and Louisiana were less than one fifth of what they were twenty years before that time, and unless steps be taken to prevent it, the alligator hide, as an article of commerce, may cease to exist in our Southern States.
It has been claimed that the destruction of the alligator has allowed the cane rat and muskrat to increase to a serious extent, the former doing great damage to crops, the latter often injuring the levees to a dangerous extent. Legislation to forbid the killing of alligators of less than five feet in length has been suggested and should be passed, since animals of less size have almost no commercial value for leather.
In 1902, the annual output from the tanneries of the United States approximated 280,000 skins, worth about $420,000. Of these about fifty-six per cent. came from Mexico and Central America, twenty-two per cent. from Florida, twenty per cent. from Louisiana, and the remaining two per cent. from the other Gulf States. South American hides are not handled by the United States markets.