The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1877-06-21
NEW OIL FIELDS.
The Territory in M'Kean County.

BE Oh ECkED
"E" in Philad elphia Times.
BRADFORD, Pa. June II.
The census of 1870 shows this--Mc-
Kean county-to have been the lowest
in property and population of all the
counties in the State, with but three
or four exceptions. This was a lower
rank in the scale of progress than NJ
Kean should have occupied, consider
ing her internal advantages. There
has existed, however, in the more
wealthy and prosperous sections of the
State prejudice against these hilly,
upper counties, prejudice that took
form in the idea often expressed, that
it was "a good country for wildcats. I"
SO the whole region around about is
known the State over as the wildcat
district" But the "stone which the
builders rejected may become the
chief of the corner" Lately the hills
of NJ Kean have shown a capacity to
produce more valuable articles of ex-
port than wild. cat carcasses and skins.
The advance of this region in material
prosperity the past few years has been
remarkable, and the next census will
not find the county so near the bottom
of the list as in 1870. She is moving
up towards the top. The Buffalo New
York and Philadelphia road has been
built through M'Kean, connecting at
Emporium with the Philadelphia and
Erie. Branching out from this is u
coal road to the Clermont coal mines,
THE best supply of soft coal contiguous
to Buffalo. The distance is but a
hundred miles, and the company is
enabled to throw coal into Buffalo at
a very low rate
TIE EFFECT OF TIE DISCOVERY.
But the discovery of oil in this end
of the county has been the main stinl-
illus to growth. This is late thing,
but the magic powers of oil are such
that the whole region has undergone
kind of transformation SO rapid that
the old farmers who own and did own
the soil can hardly keep up" They
move about among the derricks in u
dazed sort of a way and say to one
another, "Who would have thought
it?" The butter and milk and potato
business, which formerly furnished
the husbandman scant subsistence,
has been forgotten in the mad rush for
oil. Four or five hundred derricks
dot the landscape and the little station
of Bradford has risen to a city of three
thousand inhabitants, more or less.
The change here has been rapid, al
most beyond the power of belief or
the capacity of memory and sight to
reconcile the situation of a few wears
ago with that of to-day. Production
is steadily increasing and the oil terri
tory Is extending in every direction
by new discoveries and tests, so that
it is now impossible to set limit
But with the tests already made and
result obtained it is probable that NJ
kcan will take Il front rank among
the Oil-prOducing regions of the State.
Already they arc pumping up and
sending out from here over thousand
barrels daily, sent by rail over the
Erie road to New York, and sent by
pipe line to Olcan, New York, and
thence by rail over the b. n. y. d. T.
and Z, d. +. Railroads to Philadelphia.
This pipe line saves the "breaking in
bulk" in shipping to Philadelphia, as
otherwise it would have to be shipped
by Erie, which has broader gauge
than the roads leading into Philadel-
phia. With the development of oil
there is no telling to what extent the
pipeline business will be carried.
Iron is cheap and II line of pipe can be
laid at comparatively small cost to
almost any point, through almost any
description of country. The line to
Olean passes through the woods, and
over hill five hundred feet high. 1t
is hard to conceive of Il natural OBJ
struction that pipe line will not sur
mount.
LARGE PRODUCTION AND SMALL
PROFITS.
There is but one drawback to the
very rapid development of the Nc
Kean oil fields, the low price. Ii
crude oil was, say, So per barrel there
is hardly limit to which produc-
ton would be carried But for some
time it has been falling in price, and
is now about S1.75. At Sl.75 per barrel
there is no money in five ana ten
barrel wells. Those that flow fifty or
n hundred bring Il net profit to their
owners, but not what they should
considering, all the circumstances,
Crude oil at Sl.75 per barrel is too low
for profitable production, taking the
oil regions over. But how is it to be
brought up? Only by checking pro-
duction and ceasing to develop new
territory. Every new well sunk only
cuts into the profits of those already
sunk. When we reflect that it costs
from four to five thousand dollars to
put down a well the folly of doing
more of it now is apparent. If the oil
producers could bring themselves TO
act in concert and diminish produc-
ton one-half they would make more
money from the half than they do
now from the whole. The present
low price is charged by some to the