Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-08-21
4 GREAT PRODUCT.

of the upper Nile, the Indian bungalow,
snd the homes and temples of China and
Japan.
Some idea of the relative cheapness when
compared with the old illuminators may be
obtained when It is stated that it can be
bought ct retail of the ordinary grocer at
from 10 to Is cents per gallon, whereas in
the old days sperm oil and camphene sold
at from IS cents to 81 so per gallon. This
cheapness has driven out of the market
every other form of illuminating faid, and
il is of great Importance to the world that
has become SO accustomed to it's use that
the supply shall be maintained or some.
thing equally cheap and available be found
as substitute. It's annual production has
risen from few hundred barrels in 1859
to thirty million in 1882 Yet in all that
time the demand has SO near kept pace with
the supply that the immense surplus of
thirty million barrels now above ground
would not answer for two years supply if
the production were cut off. It ranks
third In value as an article of export from
the United States, breadstuffs and cotton
alone exceeding it. When we reflect that
wheat and cotton are the productions of q
vast expanse of territory and that petrole-
UNI is the product of half dozen counties
in one corner of our own State, the forty
millions annually which our petroleum ex-
ports represent simply seem astonishing.
How long can this immense supply be
kept mp? This question is being asked
with a good deal of earnestness and anxiety
by the thoughtful men who have embarked
their all in the business. While it is quite
possible that petroleum is being constantly
generated, yet the process is so slow as to
be of no practical value in keeping up the
supply. The history of the petroleum
developments teaches that the rich fields
are practically exhausted in from one to
five years after being opened. There are
many of the richest oil farms along Oil
creek and its tributaries which at present
are not producing a single barrel of oil,
while many mora furnish only the smallest
modicum of their former production.
1t is only a question of time when the
Pennsylvania oil fields will be among the
things of the past. How much time will
be required to exhaust them at the present
rate of production? This can not, of course,
be answered with any degree of certainty,
but there are many of the veteran oil men
who do not believe it will take near as
many years to deplete the remainder of the
Pennsylvania oil deposits at the present
rate OF production as it has taken to bring
that production up to its present stains.
The drill has pretty etfectually defined
the extent of the field in which productive
territory may be hoped for. The southern
limit of the oleaginous belt may be said to
be fixed by Inns drawn from Kittanning,
In Armstrong county, to Saxonburgh, in
Butler county. The oil bearing rock at
this southern extremity of the field dips SO
far below sea level that the oil was either
never generated here, or else it has been
forced to higher levels by the salt water
contained in the rock. A Gordon of wild
cat wells which failed TO find anything but
gas has been drilled az various times and
places in western Butler, Mercer, central
and western Crawford, and Erie counties.
These experiments may be said to have
practically defined the western limits of
the oil field. Coming east, a line drawn
from Smethport, on the north, to Leech.
burg, Armstrong county, on the south, will
nearly outline the general course of a cor.
don of dry holes and gas wells which have
been drilled near Wilcox and Milestone, in
Elk county, Stump creek in Jefferson, and
Leechburg in Armstrong and which clearly
limits the extension of the field to the east-
ward. These experiments, then, confle
the productive territory to the counties of
Butler, Armstrong, Clarion, Venango, east
ern Crawford, Forest, Warren and Mexican.
The available territory in the first five
named counties has already been practi.
cally exhausted, although it is quite prob.
able that number OF small pools of the
Pithole and Bullun order may yet be
found in either of them. Mexican is
on the decline, IT'S productive terri.
tory being clearly defined and much
more than half exhausted, leaving only
Warren and Forest to yet be tested for
virgin territory. Tie great deposits Just
being opened IN Cherry Grove township,
Warren county, are supposed to comprise
about $500 acres, leaving good deal of
lighter territory to be tested in Southwest
ern Warren and Eastern Forest undrilled.
But at the rate at which drilling is now
prosecuted it will take less than two years
to drill over the whole field sufficiently to
tell pretty near what is there. In Forest
tine Grandins, L. F. Watson, the Enter
prise Transit Company, and other wealthy
land owners hold large tracts, which they
can keep from the drill for long time if
they see fit, which they will probably do
if the price remains as low as at present.
There are. therefore, not few old oper.
ators who are confidently counting on the
present Cherry Grove development as the
last big field that will ever be opened up
to the drilling public. they expecting, Of
course, that the large tracts in Forest
county above described will be held and
operated leisurely by the present propri.
etors. Civil engineers like Wrigley and
Opperman have already undertaken to fur.
nish approximate figures showing the re-
naming supply of Pennsylvania petroleum,
and I1Jt hat L.. LII
of it has already been exhausted. This, of
course, is very uncertain, but there are
many things to indicate that they are right
in their conjectures, and that the end of
these marvellous supplies of oleaginous
wealth is not far off.
But the world must have petroleum or
its equivalent. When the Pennsylvania
fields are exhausted, can the supply be
made good from other fieldss This ques.
ton is hard to answer. New York has
some rich deposits, which are being rapidly
exhausted. The belt, however, may ex-
tend much farther north, and new fields be
opened in that quarter. The wildcat drill
ing has not yet been thorough enough to
finally determine the extent of the New
York petroleum deposits. There is known
to be oil in West Virginia, Kentucky,
Tennessee and California, but the richness
of the Pennsylvania fields has prevented
anything like an exhaustive test Of the
extent and value of these deposits Russia
has some very rich territory, while several
OF the other European countries lay claim
to large deposits of oleaginous wealth.
But whether any or all of these prospective
fields shall be able TO fill the demand made
upon their resources when the Pennsyl.
vania deposits are exhausted can only be
determined when the energetic Pennsyl.
vania oil operator is forced to leave his
favorite fields and begins to bounce the
busy drill In the new districts. II the oil
is there be will find it, for he is untirinp
in his search, being possessed with sort
of mania for the discovery of the greasy
fluid, without regard to whether it pays or
not. In the meantime the consumption is
constantly on the increase. stimulated hy
the fabulous cheapness OF the article, and
as long as it can be proftably produced at
Al 4 - 4