326 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



rather than in acres of real estate. This is, of course, the reason for 

 the practically universal adoption of the leasing system wherever oil 

 land is in private ownership. The government thus would not be enter- 

 ing on an experiment, but simply putting into effect a plan successfully 

 operated in private contracts. Why should not the government as a 

 land owner deal directly with the oil producer rather than through the 

 intervention of a middleman to whom the government gives title to the 

 land? 



The principal underlying feature of such legislation should be the 

 exercise of beneficial control rather than the collection of revenue. As 

 not only the largest owner of oil lands, but as a prospective large con- 

 sumer of oil by reason of the increasing use of fuel oil by the navy, the 

 federal government is directly concerned both in encouraging rational 

 development and at the same time insuring the longest possible life to 

 the oil supply. The royalty rates fixed by the government should 

 neither exceed nor fall below the current rates. But much more im- 

 portant than revenue is the enforcement of regulations to conserve the 

 public interest so that the convenants of the lessees shall specifically 

 safeguard oil fields against the penalties from careless drillings and of 

 production in excess of transportation facilities or of market require- 

 ments. 



One of the difficulties presented, especially in the California fields, 

 is that the Southern Pacific Eailroad owns every other section of land 

 in the oil fields, and in those fields the oil seems to be in a common 

 reservoir or series of reservoirs, communicating through the oil sands, 

 so that the excessive draining of oil at one well, or on the railroad terri- 

 tory generally, would exhaust the oil in the government land. Hence it 

 is important that if the government is to have its share of the oil it 

 should begin the opening and development of wells on its own property. 



In view of the joint ownership which the government and the ad- 

 joining land-owners like the Southern Pacific Eailroad have in the oil 

 reservoirs below the surface, it is a most interesting and intricate ques- 

 tion, difficult of solution, but one which ought to address itself at once 

 to the state lawmakers, how far the state legislature might impose 

 appropriate restrictions to secure an equitable enjoyment of the common 

 reservoir, and to prevent waste and and excessive drainage by the vari- 

 ous owners having access to this reservoir. 



It has been suggested, and I believe the suggestion to be a sound 

 one, that permits be issued to a prospector for oil giving him the right 

 to prospect for two years over a certain tract of government land for 

 the discovery of oil, the right to be evidenced by a license for which he 

 pays a small sum. When the oil is discovered, then he acquires title to 

 a certain tract, much in the same way as he would acquire title under a 

 mining law. Of course, if the system of leasing is adopted, then he 



