CHAPTER V. 
LIFE OF OIL-WELLS AND GAS-WELLS.—GAS PRESSURE. 
—ORIGIN OF OIL AND GAS. 
By ERASMUS HAWORTH. 
KCOND in importance only to the discovery of oil and gas 
is the question of the durability of the same. How long 
will a well produce oil? How long will a well produce 
gas? Our experience in the Midcontinental field does not per- 
mit such questions to be answered fully, because in most cases 
our wells are so young they have not become exhausted. Our 
oil-wells show more signs of exhaustion than our gas-wells do. 
In some instances, where wells have been pumped continu- 
ously for years, they are practically exhausted. The most 
remarkable case of this kind, doubtless, was in the little town 
of Peru. Here wells were put down on almost every town 
lot, each of which drew its supply of oil from the same sand- 
stone, about 1000 feet below the surface. For a period of six 
months lotowners apparently vied with each other in an en- 
deavor to get the oil exhausted first, and in so doing drilled 
at least a score of wells where but one should have been drilled. 
Under such circumstances no one could be surprised to find 
that in less than eighteen months’ time the supply of oil was 
practically exhausted and pumps, well-casings, etc., went into 
the junk-pile. 
The other extremity is found at Neodesha. Here Guffey & 
Gailey drilled wells in 1894, some of which are still productive, 
fourteen years later. The oil-wells drilled in the Neosho river 
valley in the vicinity of Humboldt and Chanute in 1901, 1902 
and 1903, in a great measure have been abandoned. This was 
brought about from a number of causes, the principal one of 
which was that the supply of oil decreased greatly. Next to 
this should be mentioned the great decline in prices. Through- 
out the period of most active development Neosho river valley 
oil was selling at from 85 cents to $1.20. The highest 
price reached at any time in the Midcontinental field was in 
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