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Manawatu Standard, Volume X, Issue 68, 19 August 1885, Page 4

■Not less than half a miUion alligators were slangbteied last season for skins. It is expected that laws will have to We enacted eventually to ~ f proti»cb them during the breeding seasou and when young, ov m time they will all be destroyed. The leather made fon the hides has sprung into popular favour with manufacturers on account of its softness, flexibility, exceeding durability and great beauty. Thero are no two skins mavkedju-t aLke, and therefore it follows that no two articles made of the leather cm be alike. The American all gator goods are ahead of those imported. A handbag 1 or valise made of this leather, it is said will lust a lifetime. The choice ekin is about six foot long, the larger skins being too ton^h for nice work. Tho process of curing them is ranch like that of any other leather, except that at the outset they are packed m lime for two months m order to remove the horny scales. The best goods are thoso which aye not'dyed, tho black colouring being rented to to cnnceul imperfections, which : sometimes exist m the heavier skins. There is an alligator tanner m Brooklyn, the only one, it is said, as yet m the country.