Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1909-10-23
MINERALS IN
SOIL OF ILLINOIS
Professor j "A. Udden Describes
State Resources Before
Broadway Church.
SECOND IN OUTPUT OF COAL
Fine Field in This Locality for the
Manufacture of Cement-First
Meeting Of the Winter.

The Broadway Presbyterian Mems
club held the first supper of the season
at the church last evening. There We're
So men present. Professor J. A. I'd
den of Augustana college delivered an
Instructive address on Geological For
nations of Illinois Soil" The Broad
way Male quartet sang several selec-
lions Robert Rexdalc read two of his
poems. when the Mississippi Was the
Great Highway and The Eleventh
Hour toast dedicated to the Elks-
Professor Uddeu's address dealt
+ chiefly with the output of minerals and
the fields in which they were found.
He said: "The coal output OF Illinois
is outranked only by the state of Penn
sylvania, which puts out at least four
times as much as Illinois annually.
The mining of coal in this state, how
ever. is rather expensive. There are
10000 men employed in the mines.
Operations are carried ON in 54 coun-
ties. There are 100000 kegs of pow
der used in a year, and there are AZ
0O0,G0 tons of coal mined in a year
These coal fields are of great extent
and were formed before any human be-
ings or animals Inhabited the earth.
whole Earth Covered with Trees.
cat that time the whole earth was
covered with tree much like our
Christmas tree. These coal fields were
in existence before either the Allie
gheny or Rocky mountains were form
ed. The thickness of the coal fields
varies in different parts of the state.
In some places the beds are so thin
that mining is not profitable. The
coal fields in this state are the result
of wide fiat marshes The slope of the
coal fields is from to 10 feet per
mile and slopes southwark. The fields
in the southern part of the state are
the thickest Under the coal fields
there is a bed of limestone 100 feet in
thickness; under that there is a bed
of shale 200 feet in thickness, then an
other bed of limestone 400 feet in thick
ness, and then n bed of st. Peter sand
stone soc feet in thickness. 1t is from
the bottom of this last bed that the
artesian water is obtained. This lime
stone forms a roof and saves opera
ting expenses. The coal beds of Illi-
nois are numbered. For instance. coal
No 6 is the field at the southern end
of the state. This is called Belleville
coal This bed is II to II feet in thick
ness. Coal No. is found in the vicin-
ity of Peoria and is at least 20 feet
lower than the bed in the southern part
of the state. Coal No. 8 and is too
thin and is not mined. Coal No. is
mined near La Sale and along the Illi-
nois river. Coal No. 1 is found near
Coal Valley and southwest to Mercer
county.
Eighty Miles of Oil Field.
-'In the production of petroleum I'LL
nois ranks third. Oklahoma ranking
first and California second The big
gest oil wells are found in the south
eastern part of the state. The oil
field is about so miles in length and
from 8 to IL miles in width The num-
Der of dry wells in Illinois is less in
comparison than in any other state.
In 1908 there were 9,772 good wells
and 1 $50 dry There has not been any
wildcat speculation by outsiders or
people who do not know anything
about oil wells. There has been some
wildcat drilling and this has been fair