PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS IN NEW YORK 



439 



It is of vital importance to use the wells alternately. A well 

 kept on the line for months without relief loses pressure and 

 volume, but a few weeks rest is generally effective in restoring 

 both. 



The original capital stock of the company, as has been said, 

 was |5000, but this amount has since been raised to $15,000 and 

 the company has considerable debt besides, but it is paying its 

 obligations as far as possible out of its income, which latter is 

 about $4500 a year, and all of which is used on the plant. No 

 one looks for any return of the amount originally invested. 



The experience of this village has been highly satisfactory. 

 The community has now enjoyed for nine years the inexpressible 

 convenience 'and luxury of natural gas for fuel and light. To 

 every household using it there has been a distinct increase of the 

 comforts of life, and a distinct diminution of its discomforts. 

 There has also been for all stockholders in the company an 

 annual reduction of the cost of fuel and light that will go far 

 toward repaying them for the original investment. 



It is hard to see how the fortunes of the village could have 

 been improved by any different management. All the work has 

 been carried on soberly and sagaciously and without illusions or 

 self-deception or " booms " of any sort. 



The example of Sandy Creek in its use of natural gas may well 

 be taken as a model for all communities similarly circumstanced. 

 The character of the gas as shale gas is unmistakably displayed 

 in the record above giyen. The lack of. definite horizons, the 

 frequent occurrence of pockets, the absence of salt water, the 

 want of agreement as to rock pressure in the various wells, even 

 in those nearest to each other, are all marks that admit of but 

 one interpretation. 



c Pulaski. This village was inspired to undertake the search 

 for natural gas by the successful experience of the neighboring 

 village of Sandy Creek, above described. It had also grounds 

 of encouragement of its own. " Surface indications " had long 

 been known in the form of escaping gas. The best known lo- 

 cality was a small but picturesque island in the valley of the 

 Salmon river, adjoining the corporation. Many outcrops of the 

 rocks occur on this island, and from some of the natural joints 

 it has long been known that gas was escaping and could be 



