278 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



of the supply is now handled by a few distributing companies who 

 operate over a large area, often taking in widely separated districts, 

 and who are not always able or willing to distribute their receipts 

 according to locality. 



The field reports indicated a total of 2046 wells used for gas 

 on January i, 1916. A total of 141 new wells were drilled, of which 

 35 were dry, and 84 old wells were abandoned, so that the number 

 of producing wells at the close of the year was 2068. 



Altogether natural gas is produced in 15 counties, situated in 

 the central and western sections between Lake Erie and the east 

 end of Lake Ontario. The most productive fields are in Erie 

 county and include the area east of Buffalo and also many pools 

 in the southern part in the towns of East Hamburg, Aurora, 

 Collins and others. Chautauqua county has over 100 separate 

 producers, most of them small, but with a few large companies 

 which supply their product to local communities. Cattaraugus and 

 Allegany counties contribute considerable quantities of gas, 

 obtained from the same general area as the oil, which is found 

 in several pools along the Pennsylvania boundary. Genesee county 

 has come into prominence in recent years through the Pavilion 

 field in the southeastern corner. Ontario county contains a number 

 of wells, mainly in the towns of East and West Bloomfield. Among 

 the smaller factors in the industry are Livingston, Monroe, Niagara, 

 Onondaga, Oswego, Schuyler, Steuben, Wyoming and Yates. A 

 test well was drilled in 1917 near Belleville, Jefferson county, which 

 found some gas in the Trenton limestone at 600 feet depth. 

 Similar discoveries are reported from time to time in the lime- 

 stones and shales along the Mohawk valley as far east as Albany 

 county, but there have never been any commercial pools developed 

 anywhere east of Oswego county, which contains some small but 

 persistent and paying wells in the vicinity of Pulaski and Lacona. 



The business of distributing the output among the cities and 

 towns within the different districts is controlled by a relatively 

 small number of concerns, some of whom are engaged also in 

 productive operations. The Iroquois Natural Gas Co. of Buffalo, 

 the largest single distributor in the State, operates pipe lines to 

 the principal fields in Allegany, Cattaraugus, Erie and Genesee 

 counties. The Alden-Batavia Natural Gas Co. and the Pavilion 

 Natural Gas Co. are important producers and distributors in the 

 Erie-Genesee county districts. In Chautauqua county the larger 

 operators are the Frost Gas Co. and the Silver Creek Gas & Im- 



