CHAPTER VI. 
COMMERCIAL CONDITIONS OF OIL AND GAS. 
BY ERASMUS HAWORTH. 
Oil. 
HE total production of oil to the close of the calendar year 
1907 is given in the enclosed tables. They are so ar- 
ranged that little, if any, explanation is needed. It will 
be noted that oil has been marketed in Kansas for many years, 
500 barrels having been reported as early as 1889. The yield 
gradually increased to and including the year 1896, when a 
total of 113,571 barrels were produced. From this it gradually 
declined to 85,215 barrels in 1899. The new development set 
in shortly after this and the production rapidly increased to a 
maximum, in 1904, of 4,250,779 barrels, since which time the 
production has gradually declined. For the year 1905 the 
Prairie Oil and Gas Company bought in Kansas 3,244,062.96 
barrels; for 1906, 3,128,287.17 barrels, and for 1907, 1,696,- 
428.85 barrels. The independent refineries and consumers of 
fuel-oil consumed an amount not determined with exactness, 
but probably more than half a million barrels per year, which 
should be added to the above figures. 
During this period the production of oil in what is now the 
state of Oklahoma has gradually increased from the first de- 
velopments, nearly ten years ago, to and including the year 
1907. Developments south of the Kansas state line were very 
rapid and satisfactory in 1906 and 1907. Most of the pur- 
chasers of oil disregarded the state line in their commercial 
operations, and as a result it is easier to obtain figures for the 
entire Midcontinental field, including Kansas and Oklahoma, 
than for each one separately. In 1904 the production of the 
entire field was only a little over five and one-half million bar- 
rels, showing that but little drilling had been done south of the 
state line at that time. For the year 1905, however, it aggre- 
gated fully 12,000,000 barrels; in 1906, nearly 22,000,000 bar- 
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