Jasper County Democrat, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 January 1902 — NATURAL GAS. [ARTICLE]

NATURAL GAS.

The natural gas field of Indiana covers about 28,000 square miles In the eastern central part of the state. It Is the most extensive natural gas field in the world. Blackford, Delaware, Grant and Madison are the principal gas-producing counties. The gas field extends also over parts of Jay, Howard, Hamilton, Randolph,Tipton, Wells, Adams. Rush and Shelby counties. In tlie cornlferous formation of the westen part of the state gas has been struck at Loogootee, Martin county, and Petersburg, Pike county, in paying quantities and at other points in that formation in other parts of the state, but not in paying quantities. Natural gas and petroleum have a common origin. Ail the higher anticlines In the main gas field In which the porous Trenton limestone occurs have been tapped for gas, and while the stored reservoirs have not become exhausted the demand upon them from the local factories and pipe lines to Chicago and Indiana towns has been so great during the past fifteen years that the natural rock pressure of 326 pounds has steadily decreased until It Is now but 150 pounds. According to the state gas supervisor the natural producing gas field has contracted from its original area of 2,*00 square miles to 1,300 square miles, the salt water having In numerous places enoroached upon ths gas and risen to higher levels In the synclines, preventing a uniform pressure which formerly prevailed. There are Urge areas In th# producing field yet untouched which piping companies and manufacturing corporations have kept in reserve, and while the maximum production of natural gas production In the state has been reached, and It Is now on the decline. Indiana will etlll have more natural gas for many years to come than any other state in the union.

Some Gas History.

Natural gaa was discovered In Indiana In 1886. The gas belt, which Is now a network of factory towns, where the greatest glass works In the world are located and also some of the largest steel plants, and where all classes of manufactures are represented, was then purely an agricultural region, without factories of any kind except a few small Baw mills, flour mills and brick yards. Many single manufacturing plants, coeting upward of a million dollars each, are on sites which were corn fields or cow pastures sixteen years ago. Anderson then was a small oounty seat, supported by the farming Interest. El wood and Alexandria were railroad crossings, without the title of villages. The taxable property of Madison county the year following the discovery of natural gas was appraised at less than *10,000,000. Ten years later the appraisement of taxable property had Increased t0'*27,000,000. The population of the county, which before the discovery of gas was 56.457, had increased to 70.470 In 1900. Madison Is the tvplcal county of the gas belt. Delaware, Grant and Blackford have done almost as well tn manufacturin' - ; Increase of wealth and In population. However, It must not be Inferred that Indiana was not In a high state of prosperity at the time of the discovery of natural gas or that the state did not then contain an Intelligent prosperous and contented population. Nor Is it true that agriculture was tb? sole resource of the state. At that time Indiana had Rad a large percentage of Its population engaged for many years In ths exploitation of the greatest tract of hardwood timber ever found in tne world. Lumbering end the wood manufacturing Industry had been one of the greatest resources of the state and back in the seventies the product of the forest exceeded the agricultural product of the state. Indianapolis. Evansville, Ft. Wayne, South Bend and Terre Haute were even then great Industrial centera South Band was then, as It is now, the' center of the wagon and plow manufacturing Industry of the United States, and New Albany had the largest plate glass worka Ft. Wayne had the largest car wheel foundry In the world. Michigan City led In the cooperage business of the country. Evansville was the center of the largest hardwood market of the world. The value of the natural gas consumed In Indiana from 1886 to 1900 Is estimated by the United States geological survey at *1.000.000 the first two years. *5.000,000 each for the years I*BB, 1889 and 1S90; *4.000,000 for 1891; *4,700,00 for 1892; *5,500.000 each for the years 1893, 1894 and 1895 and a little over *5,000,000 annually since. Up to ten years ago the timber of the state manufactured and exported yielded more than *15,000,000 a year for twenty to thirty years back. However, as the destruction of timber had been carried on at such a rapid pace that natural gas counties had their supply exhausted at the time of the discovery of natural'gas the discovery of natural gas came at the proper time to replace the timber Industry which was about to dwindle down and totally disappear, especially in the gas belt regions. The river counties, which at one time were the principal manufacturing counttea of the state, having lost population for a time after the exhaustion of the timber resources. Is an Indication what would have prevailed generally throughout the central regions of the stats during ths last decade If natural gas had not been discovered. However, the coal fields would have .been more rapidly developed and the centers of glass and steel manufacturing would be tn the coal regions In the southwestern part of the state Instead of tn the eastoentral part. It would have required, perhaps, twenty years longer to realize the existing industrial conditions of the state. With the assurance of permanent fuel supplies in petroleum and coal the manufacturing Industries of Indiana can be considered on a permanent foundation regardless of the duration of the natural gas supply. Future of Gas Supply. Authorities conflict as to the probable duration of the gas supply. That it is a stored product, which is being drawn upon in Immense volume they all agree. But It Is Impossible to estimate the amount stored In the Trenton roegj although the volume drawn therefrom can be approximately estimated. Natural

rock pressure has been cited by some authorities as the gauge by which the sup. ply can be estimated, but the late Prof. Orton of the Ohio state-university * recognized authority on petroleum and natural gas deposits, took the position that It was Impossible to determine by ths natural pressure how long the gaa confined in the porous rock of an anticline would last