HAWORTH.| Commercial Conditions of Oil and Gas. 213 
terior requires a certain form of lease, one clause in which 
specifies that at least one well shall be drilled by the end of the 
first twelve months after the lease is approved. This has been 
the most important factor in forcing drilling. The secretary 
is of the opinion that he is best serving the cause of the Indian 
by giving him royalties from oil-wells as rapidly as possible. 
It is generally believed that the low price of oil is due to the 
great excess of development over consumption. According to 
the table given, the Prairie Oil Company has fourteen million 
barrels of oil stocks stored here and there throughout the oil- 
producing territory and at the Sugar Creek refinery near Kan- 
sas City, with an increase of nearly 40,000 barrels per day. 
With the entire area controlled by one good business head, de- 
velopment would be stopped until the stocks had decreased 
greatly and the price of oil advanced ; but with the Secretary of 
the Interior insisting on the “development clause,” no one cares 
to jeopardize the title of valuable leases by declining to drill; 
therefore the price goes downward, and production continues 
to increase. 
MONTHLY PIPE-LINE RUNS OF THE PRAIRIE OIL AND GAS COMPANY, 1905. 
(IN BARRELS.) 
MonruH. Runs. Daily, |Weliveries. |) Daily, Put into Daily Total 
average, average tanks. average. stocks. 
January....... 793,648 25,602 315,426 10,175 478 ,222 15,427 5,655,672 
February...... 564, 482 20,160 292,649 10,452 271,833 9,708 5.912 ,207 
March. %....... 695,908 22,449 249 564 8,050 308 ,087 9,988 6,327,923 
IAD rilieen oes 549 3838 18,311 241 ,252 8,042 308 , 087 10,270 6,657,926 
ITE V as sak dares 784 ,229 25,298 219,065 7,067 563,164 18,231 71,256,628 
TUNE Has oes 715,397 23,847 185,889 6,196 529,508 17,650 7,573,536 
Sallys oer oe ces 1,091,000 35,194 206,155 6,650 884,844 28,543 8,265,004 
August........ 1,212,912 39,126 279,391 9,013 933 ,521 30,114 9,213,216 
September..... 1,208,362 40,112 318,864 10,629 884,498 29,483 10,618,676 
QOctober........ 1,380,208 44,522 209,094 6,745 1,171,114 387,778 11,585,178 
November ..... 1,355,012 45,167 416,476 13,883 938 ,5385 31,285 12,510,152 
December...... 1,509,325 48 ,688 684,642 22,085 824,683 26,603 13,250,118. 
Totals...... 11,854,821 82,373 | 3,618,467 9,916 8,096 ,096 22,086 
Gas.—The production of gas was greatly increased during 
1905. Early in the year the Kansas Natural Gas Company be- 
gan buying property, and has continued that policy to the 
present. It now owns all the leases formerly owned by almost 
every big gas company in the state, and stands ready at all 
times to pay for any new developments that may be made. It 
now owns nearly all the good production of Montgomery and 
Wilson counties, the two richest gas-fields in the Midcontinen- 
tal area. From near Independence south to the state line, wells 
with a daily capacity of fifteen million cubic feet are compara- 
