Congressional edition Volume 5397

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1909 Excerpt: ...it is necessary to take the surface or we can not have a placer mine. It seems to me there are mining claims, such as oil claims, where they might have the surface of the ground retained and then passed to the settler for farming purposes and the right given to take the oil out at the same time. Our mining laws should be changed so as to permit the various kinds of minerals to be taken out where necessary, and at the same time have the conservation of the ground that it may be used for farming. The matter of taking out oil is another matter to which our attention has been called. Oil has been taken from the ground in various parts of this country where a mining location was made and a line of oil wells was placed along the end of the claim and then wells pumped in that way, taking the oil out of the adjoining claim. That made necessary the proposition that the man on the adjoining claim should also put down his wells. The result of this was an overproduction of oil in that place, and the oil actually lost by being pumped into large tanks, not made of iron but simply dug in the ground; and in many instances it was allowed to go to waste. In connection with oil, another recommendation of the commission is that the oil be put to a higher use than for fuel; that coal should be used for this purpose, and our belief is that the use of oil as a fuel in our engines is a waste of the material; that if it be necessary for the future of our supply of oil, it should be conserved and put to a higher use than we are now making of it. The coal supply is estimated to last for another century; the iron supply until the middle of the present century. With iron the statement can be made that the estimate is based only upon the class of ore they are now mining. The lower grade...