The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-05-30
SOUTHERN PROGRESS
DEVELOPMENT IN TENNESSEE
 KENTUCKY OIL FIELDS.
Pipe Line Built at a Cost of More Than $1, 100000 is Nearing Completion-$4O, 900, 900 in Improvements Around
 Birmingham.

to completion at a cost of more than N.000,000 of pipe line system to furnish an outlet for the oil of the Tennessee Kentucky fields leads the correspondent of The Manufacturers Record at Bar boursville, Ky, to assert that the next few months will largely determine what part these two States will take in oil pro duction. He writes:
 There are already enough wells drilled in to make a good showing for some time to come, and with tine Nlarge amount of oil already on the surface in the various pumps being idle on account of scare ity of material. On an estimate, there are now at least 900 barrels of oil in storage tanks in the various fields await ing the completion of the line. This does not include the smaller tanks in some of the wildcat developments. At Somerset there are 225.00O barrels of oil in ten stor- age tanks. the production of the Wayne County. Kentucky, and the Tennessee field. This oil Is the accumulation of over year. The Knox County field has produced about 5000 barrels during the past two or three months, which produc- ton Is stored at Barboursville In the central developments there is a vast quantity of oil, and storage capacity at all points is becoming limited. However. the pressure will soon be relieved.
 With the impetus given the work by recent wildcat strikes in new territory, and the fact that many companies are just now beginning to do active work. field operations are on the increase in all sections. In the southeastern districts activity Is evident all along the line be- tween the States of Kentucky and Ten nessee. and in this territory the Standard is beginning to operate under the name of the New Dominion oil Company. Ten drilling rigs have been shipped into Cum berland County by ths concern, and d good production will rapidly be obtained, | and that will mean the extension of the pipe line to that territory. In the older developments of Wayne and Knox Coun- | ty good producers are being drilled every | day, and the output is increasing. In Wayne County during the three weeks | past about twenty wells have been drilled | to completion. while the same Is true of | the Knox field. Not so many have been drilled in Cumberland, for the reason that 1t takes longer to drill well.
 Tn the central development prepara- | tions are being made to put as many | wells as possible to producing, and work | Is rapidly extending to new fields. In
 Morgan County the deep well territory oi | Kentucky, several nice producers have | come in lately, while strikes in the more
 shallow formation of Bath and Rowan | counties are a daily ocurrence. In tht | counties of Estill, Lee, Elliott and Wolf'
 work is progressing systematically. anC ] every strike is serving to define more ac | curately the nature of the otl-beartnl
 sands and the number of dusters Is grow
 ing smaller. The output of this field is { | lubricant, and pipe line extension ha | now been made to Salt Lick, on the c | and o. Railroad. and the output is being | loaded into tank cars and shipped away | However, Illuminating oil Is found also l but not in such quantities as the lubri l eating grade.
 operations will be carried on on al
 extensive scale in what is known as tn | eastern district, territory lying off tn | railroads, and difficult of access. / | number of Eastern capitalists are ship
 ping standard rigs into the region am | already a number of wells are in cours
 of drilling in the counties of Clay an
 Leslie. It is the intention of the opera
 tors to drill deep holes and give tn
 country a thorough test. The Standar
 has considerable acreage in this regior
 but will not begin work for a while.
 | Northern capitalists are now begin
 ming to put considerable money in thi
 oil field, and the past few weeks hay
 witnessed the formation of a number c
 new companies, some of which have al ready commenced work"
 An interesting deevlopent is promised i
 the closing during the week of a deal fc
 the sale of large granite deposits in tn
 suburbs of Little Rock, Ark. con
 pany composed of New England, TenneS . see and Missouri men will work the dt
 posit bringing Its cutters from Mass
 chusetts and starting work as soon a f possible with eventy-five cutters an : | several hundred laborers, the initial ord q for machinery amounting to S5O.OoO. I'll : finishing plant of the company will Y just inside the city limits.
 e At Birmingham it is estimated that il e dustries in that field are making in d provements representing between 0,0oo
 GOO and $40 900, ,000. Among these inIproV l. ments are five new furnaces now In cour 1t of construction and the rebuilding 'e three furnaces. One of the furnace IS that for the steel plan; at Gadsden. is q IS pected to make record as to constru IS tion It Is the first of the four 35O-t T. blast furnaces projected and since Oc' Der 27th last one main stack los feet hii ,5 has gone up with four stoves 20 feet " a diameter and ga feet high. Nine ba.teri G. of boilers are ready for business, as d f. also the engine room, cast bank, I
 machine and other departments neceSsa
 for operating the furnaces. The lini
 for the various stacks IS being placed ,t Too Great a Risk.