72 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



of farm lands are as yet improved. It is in the midst of the oil formation, 

 which extends south from •western Pennsylvania in a nearly straight line to 

 the Kanawha. The famous lubricating oil, used by the Baltimore and Ohio 

 railroad, is pumped from shallow wells near Petroleum, 22 miles from Parkers- 

 burg. 



Upon Oil Run, a little valley winding through rocky hills, whose disar- 

 ranged strata dip in every direction, at every angle of inclination, may be seen 

 a marvel of nature and a curiosity of industry — the Virginia oil works — owned 

 by a company of which John Haudlan, a prominent business man of Wheel- 

 ing, is managing agent and one of the proprietors. The works are located 

 two miles north of the northwestern Virginia railroad, very nearly in a direct 

 north and south line with the oil springs of Wirt county and of western Penn- 

 sylvania. 



The oil is the heaviest known in the country, almost destitute of henzole 

 and naphtha, and a superior lubricator. The Baltimore and Ohio railroad uses, 

 as the best lubricating oil attainable, about one hundred barrels per month. 



Eleven wells were working at the date of the writer's visit, all operated hy 

 a rude but effective as well as novel system of mechanism, driven by a 

 single engine of fifteen horse-power, with ample power to spare for the work- 

 ing of many more wells. It is called a " telegraph," its continuous line of 

 rough scantling, suspended by iron hangers between duplicate telegraph-like 

 poles, being somewhat suggestive of such a name. The entire system, con- 

 necting the different wells throughout the narrow valley and in the ravines 

 that make into it, requires more than half a mile in length of this telegraphing, 

 and is operated by an alternating horizontal motion — forward perhaps twenty 

 inches and back the same — which keeps in continuous action all of the 

 pumps at the same time. A dirty, greenish stream flows forth, and is borne 

 in troughs to large wooden reservoirs, with stop-cocks near the top for draw- 

 ing ofi' the oil, and at the bottom for discharging the water. Nearly all the 

 labor required is in running the engine and obtaining fuel for it, boring wells, 

 making fixtures, and barrelling the oil. The oil is brought from the recesses 

 of the earth, separated from the water, and conveyed to the barrellers abso- 

 lutely without manual labor. 



The wells are from 28 to 200 feet deep, the shallowest producing the heav- 

 iest and best lubricating oil ; but Mr. Handlan is now engaged in boring deep 

 wells, thus far with very good success. 



Wirt county, south and west of Ritchie, is in the second tier of counties 

 from the Ohio, upon the Little Kanawha. It is also declivitous and oil-yielding, 

 and is the location of the oldest and most extensive system of oil wells to be 

 found in the State. Their discovery was attended with much excitement, and 

 the proprietors of the soil are deriving immense revenues as rental, and the 

 operators are variously meeting with returns ranging from the fullest success 

 to the most decided failure. Some wells ' are improving, others failing, and 

 after temporary suspension are again worked. A singular geological phenom- 

 enon of the oil region has attracted attention in this vicinity. A soft black sub- 

 stance, resembling coal, inflammable and soluble, a kind of solidified petroleum, 

 fills a chasm between vertical strata, from four to six feet in width. How far 

 it extends vertically it is impossible to say. The business of extracting ©il 

 from it would long since have been undertaken, but that the pure oil, in im- 

 mense quantities, possibly resulting from precisely similar fissures, has spouted 

 forth by thousands of barrels, almost without the aid of man, in its immediate 

 vicinity. (See description of these works in another part of this volvme.) 



A large portion of its land is unimproved, but naturally productive ; its 

 assessed value averages $5 11. Its crop statistics show an average yield of 

 farm products. 



Calhoun is a email county, also intersected by the Little Kanawha, contain- 



