784 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1. 



A VISIT TO THE OIL-REGIONS NEAR WASHING- 

 TON, PA. 



I have always been interested, not only in 

 wells for water, but in wells that produce oil, 

 gas, or, in fact, any thing connected with the 

 development and bringing into use of any of 

 God's gifts that have been stored away for 

 ages under the surface of the earth. When I 

 found the following in the midst of a business 

 letter, you may readily imagine I was some- 

 what interested : 



Friend Rool.—liyow do not have sufficient excite- 

 ment in Medina, come down to my place and I will 

 take you all over the oil-fields, and show you the new 

 wells. AVe have one here that has produced 90,000 

 barrels in about ninety days, and it is close to 

 some of my property. " H. W. Vankirk. 



Washington, Pa., Aug. 19.| 



Soon after receiving the above I took the 

 train at our place, and reached Bridgeport 

 between one and two in the afternoon. Not- 

 withstanding I have lived all my life so near 

 Wheeling, W. Va., I never before had caught 

 a glimpse of the beautiful bridges that there 

 span the Ohio River. May be the circum- 

 stances and surroundings had something to 

 do with it; but it seemed to me then that that 

 beautiful suspension bridge surpassed in 

 grandeur and sublimity any similar structure 

 I had ever seen at Niagara Falls or anywhere 

 else ; and while I was wondering whether it 

 was really a paying transaction to make such 

 a magnificent structure just to get across the 

 Ohio River, I was reminded by a man at the 

 entrance of the bridge that I had not paid my 

 toll. How much do you suppose it was for 

 going across? Just one cent ! At the other 

 end of the bridge you pay another cent to get 

 off. But there are really two bridges. The 

 first one strikes the island on which is part of 

 the city of Wheeling; and then another bridge 

 goes from the island over the main part of the 

 river. At the St. Louis bridge, you may 

 remember, I paid ten cents for going over 

 with my wheel, whether I walked beside it or 

 rode, the same price as for any other "vehicle." 



Wlien I got over to Wheeling I found my- 

 self on part of the same national pike that I 

 described while going through Belmont Co. 

 It runs over into West Virginia, and through 

 to Washington, Pa. Others as well as myself 

 enjoy riding over this beautiful national pike, 

 for I found wheelmen and wheelwomen going 

 and coming almost constantly. On this pike 

 through West Virginia and Pennsylvania the 

 L. A. W. have put up mile-posts at the end of 

 every mile. This gives you information in 

 regard to distances both ways to and from the 

 prominent towns. Not only that, where there 

 is a hill at all dangerous a conspicuous board 

 neatly painted is put up as a caution to wheel- 

 men. I think it reads something like this. 

 First in large letters is the word " danger ; " 

 then in a few words below, the wheelman is 



admonished of just the kind of danger he is 

 to look out for at the foot of the hill. Now, 

 it grieved my heart to find that a good many 

 of these danger-boards had l)een smashed to 

 pieces by throwing rocks at them, there being 

 plenty of said " rocks "' all along the national 

 pike. This sort of vandalism is getting to be 

 really a serious matter. I have actually got 

 off from my wheel, picked up the fragments 

 of a sign-board that had rtcently been smash- 

 ed, and then in despair have gone several miles 

 out of m}' way, and possibly been obliged to 

 ride over a dangerous road after dark, just 

 because of this fashion of destroying .sign- 

 boards as fast as they are put up. In our 

 county I have noticed some very pretty ones 

 made of malleable iron. But some of these 

 iron signs have been twisted and bent up so 

 you have to get off your wheel to see what 

 they read. After a few boys have been severely 

 punished, I think perhaps this sort of " sport " 

 will be broken up. 



The nearer I got to Washington, the thicker 

 were the oil-well derricks until it really made 

 one think of the masts of schooners in a 

 crowded bay along the ocean-side. After 

 night the whole country was illuminated and 

 made cheerful by the blazing of gas-jets. 

 Beautiful lawns with curved walks and shrub- 

 bery were lighted up at night by gas-jets two 

 or three feet high. The gas seems to be so 

 plentiful there it does not seem to be extrava- 

 gance to light up not only the houses but the 

 doorway yards and lawns. 



I found my friend Vankirk at Vankirk Sta- 

 tion, five or six miles from the city of Wash- 

 ington. As I rode up in front of his residence 

 I found him and his hired man just getting 

 ready to start out to work. (Of course, I 

 stayed in Washington over night. ) When I 

 rode up to where they were busy in hitching 

 up their team I said, "Good morning, boys. 

 Do you suppose there is anybody around here 

 who wants to see ))ie ? " 



You ought to have seen friend Vankirk 's 

 face light up after he had taken in the situa- 

 tion. While he changed the order of business 

 and called for a hor.se and buggy to take us 

 around to the oil-wells I shook hands with 

 the old father and mother, got acquainted 

 with the children and grandchildren, looked 

 over the strawberry and raspberry patch, took 

 a glimpse at the apiary, gazed my fill at the 

 tops of the great hills, and then away down 

 into the valleys. Oh what hills they do have 

 in Pennsylvania! And the funniest part of it 

 is, they grow tremendous crops of corn, not 

 only on the side hills, but over the very tops. 

 They do not use fertilizers at all, if I am cor- 

 rect, and but very little stable manure, because 

 they do not have it to use. But in some way 

 or other they manage to get magnificent corn. 

 As nearly as I could find out it is done by a 

 system of rotation and plowing under of clover 

 or timothy at regular periods. 



The place where the great excitement has 

 recently started up is away back in the hills, 

 a good way off from "anywhere." Some- 

 thing like twenty wells have already been put 

 down. Out of twenty, two were paying tip- 

 top ; three or four moderately, and a dozen or 



