THE MINING AND QUARRY INDUSTRY I914 



45 



NATURAL GAS 



The natural gas industry had a slight setback last year, the pro- 

 duction having fallen off in some of the more important districts. 

 The decrease was the result of natural causes, not involved in any 

 way with the general business depression, as shown by the fact that 

 the' value of the output actually was larger than in the preceding 

 year. There were no discoveries of new pools to counterbalance 

 the normal decline of flow in the older territory. 



The flow of gas as reported by the individual producers and pipe- 

 line companies amounted to 8,714,681,000 cubic feet, as compared 

 with 9,055,429,000 cubic feet in 191 3, a decline of nearly 4 per 

 cent. On the other hand, the value of the output, according to 

 reports, reached $2,570,165 against $2,549,227, and was the largest 

 that has ever been recorded. The value is based on the average 

 prices received for the gas in the different centers of consumption. 

 The average price for the whole State was 29.4 cents a thousand, as 

 compared with 27.8 cents in 1913. 



The production of gas in the State since 1904 when the statistics 

 were first collected by this office, is shown in the accompanying 

 table. In former years it has been feasible to separate the produc- 

 tion according to the county or district in which it was made, but 

 owing to the recent changes in the industry, particularly in the 

 organization of large distributing companies who derive their sup- 

 plies from different fields, the statistics can no longer be separated 

 by counties. 



Production of natural gas 



YEAR 



OUTPUT 

 IOOO CU. FT. 



VALUE 



NUMBER 



OF WELLS 



I904 



1905 

 I906 

 I907 

 1908 

 I909 

 I9IO 

 I9II 

 1912 



1913 

 1914 



2.399 987 



639 130 



007 086 



052 145 

 860 000 

 825 215 

 815 643 

 127 571 

 564 659 

 055 429 



8 714 68i 



$552 J 97 

 607 000 

 766 579 



800 014 



987 775 



1 045 693 



1 411 699 



1 547 077 



1 882 21)7 



2 549 --7 

 2 570 i ( >5 



925 

 100 

 280 

 34" 



1 4<>3 



1 ()()() 



' 750 



1 707 



The returns for 1914 showed about 200 individual producers with 

 a total of 1797 wells. More than one-half of the producers were in 



