n barrels of forty-two gallons
each of petroleum were wasted in the year 1906.

The Gulf field lying in Texas and Louisiana has been developed entirely
since 1901. The first well was drilled near Beaumont, Texas, as an
experiment to determine whether oil could be found. Small storage tanks
were provided and it was hoped to find oil enough to make drilling
profitable. The well proved to be a "gusher" of such magnitude that
before sufficient tanks could be provided, or the flow checked, more
than half a million barrels were wasted on the ground.

The Gulf petroleum contains a large amount of asphalt and a small amount
of gasolene and lamp oil. It has been used principally for burning as
crude oil in locomotives and has sold as low as ten cents per barrel;
but lately methods of refining have been perfected which produce good
lubricating oil and a gasolene of high value from these low-grade oils.

The last great field is found in California. The oil is similar to the
Gulf oil, and investigation has shown that the quantity is greater in
this field than in any other. It is used largely for fuel and power on
account of lack of other fuels in that region.

In addition to these fields there are small ones in Colorado and
Wyoming, and promises of fields in New Mexico, Utah, Idaho, Montana,
Oregon and Washington.

Estimates of the amounts of petroleum yielded are made by computing the
amount usually produced per acre, which varies from eight hundred
barrels produced in Pennsylvania, to eight thousand barrels per acre
produced in Illinois. In most of the fields it is about a thousand
barrels per acre. Even then the amount is extremely difficult to
estimate. The Geological Survey concludes that the lowest probable
calculation of the entire amount stored in the rocks of the United
States is ten billion, and the highest a little less than twenty-five
billion barrels. The last report officially published shows that we are
producing one hundred and seventy million barrels per year. If the same
rate of production continues, we might expect our petroleum to last from
fifty-five to one hundred and thirty-five years, according to the amount
found; but tables of statistics show that throughout the life of the
petroleum industry, as much has been produced each nine years as the
entire product before that time. For example, up to the present, we have
produced one billion eight hundred million barrels and if the present
rate continues, in