Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-03-01
GOLD OUT OF GREASE.
How Farmers Make Money by Sell
ing Their Land to Oil Men at
MANY TIMES ITS ORIGINAL VALUE,
The Petroleum Business Hereabouts Runs
the Glass Trade Close
In THE AMOUNT OF MONEY INVESTED

When you see man in Pittsburg or here
abouts wearing rubber boots and with bis
pantaloons tucked into them, writing q
check for several hundred, or several thou
sand dollars, you can make up your mind
that nine chances to ten he is petro-
leum developer. In city whose
tonnage exceeds that of any other in
the United States, a great industry
may develop without attracting special at
tention until, like genius, it bursts out of
obscurity at once into full blaze, and daz-
zles the eyes of the community. The petro-
1eum industry, vast as it is, has scarce yet
been appreciated by people not immedi-
ately concerned.
1t is difficult, ior want of records, to get
at anything nearer than an approximate
knowledge of the extent Of the business in
the Pittsburg district, which is mainly
in Allegheny county and along the
make Pittsburg their headquarters,
but standing within the line the cost of de-
velopment during the past three months is
shown to be over s.. 100000, counting wells
completed and rigs up and building. This
is in addition to the bonus paid owners Of
the land. a sum which has enabled impecu
nious farmers to lift their mortgages, the
only crops the majority were able to raise
for several years past, or to improve their
surroundings and thereby benefit all classes
OF society.
Big Bonuses That Have Been Paid.
The amount Of bonus paid mas been enor-
nous, but as there is no record of it, it can
not be given. In many, instances it is many
times the agricultural value of the farm,
and one case is known where $40, 900 was
paid on 30 acres which two years ago might
have been bought outright for Sc, 900 aud
regarded dear at that. Oil producers,
however, are not enamored, as rule, with
the idea of owning land, and will frequent
~ pay two or three times the market
value for It rather than buy out
right. This money paid comes into the
hanks of this city and is used in business.
1t is one of the supports that have en-
abled the banks to supply business with
currency at the regular discount.rates, and
this is the only community of consequence
in the Union that has not severely felt the
pressure of tight money in the last six
months.
AimOSt III SlgHb Vi tllS City anu WlLulu
three months, there have been 800 wells
either completed or drilling represen-
ting a cost of $4,000 each in addi-
tion to bonus paid, pipe lines
laid, pumping stations and tanks built of
81. 700, 600. While, as has been the case in
all petroleum development, there has been
an enormous amount of money lost By oper-
ators in the shape of dry holes or very light
producing wells, yet the estimates Of pro-
1uction furnished by such operators and
1ealers as j. S. McKelvey, Fisher Bros. and
others of their caliber, show that the busi-
ness on the whole is not only boon to land
owners. manufacturers and workmen of all
kinds, but very profitable on the whole to
operators at large.
Production of the Pittsburg District.
1t is estimated that the production of the
district is %, 900 barrels day,
worth, at the present low price. $4,000, 900
or the year, enough to pay per cent inter-
st on an investment of S13O, ,O00, 900. !
This estimate does not take into considera- |
ion the value of the gas wells struck by
hese operators the flow of which is being |
wasted to great extent A few
months ago there was real shortage of gas,
,ut there is none now and thousands OF peo- |
Die believe the reason gas companies allow |
hem to shiver, is that they can collect as |
nuch money on a short supply as on full |
'ne. There is more gas blowing off into the |
atmosphere within few miles of the city, |
md contiguous to mains already laid, |
o give it as good supply |
IS it ever had. If some one
we're to invent some machine that
rould force the gas, very large part of the
mount necessary might be had from light
PRESSURE wells that are now considered
worthless when they cannot be used for fuel
n the field, but there is no excuse for allow
ng the two big Coraopolis wells to blow
way without utilization, and the Niagara
ike roar they produce is distressing to peo-
lie in the vicinity.
A little calculation will show that the
present development of the petroleum bust
less in the Pittsburg district represents
nore money invested and greater dividends
eturned than does the local glass manu-
acture