Show USEFUL alligators they are valuable as ot croul the bayous of louisiana were formerly the homes of alligators without number they did no particular harm except by catching stray a pig or dog now and then nor were they known to be of any particular use the people for the most part let them alone then there sprang up at the north a demand for alligator skins for the making of satchels pocketbooks and the like and the natural result followed the alligators were killed in great numbers till presently they were almost destroyed no harm was done people thought but by and by it began beg an to be noticed that certain mischievous quadrupeds were multiplying in the rice fields according to a louisiana exchange the muskrats increased in such numbers that it became hard work to keep up the back biad been built to keep the water on the rice during alie season what perhaps was more erious serious s alic same burrowing relents infected alie front levees and nothing but constant watchfulness disastrous 1 l UD U D maratt acan to ct of s n iii iti tite in the number of raccoons and other animals proved upon the cauliflower cabbag cabbage e lettuce arad similar vegetables some of the gardeners were compelled to their gar g ar dens with cloae wire fences or else abandon the cultivation of some of their most profitable crops the alligators had not been useless and the people had learned anew that it is dangerous to go too fat and too far in disturbing disturb inc the order of nature |