Probably more than in any other field in the world, the development of the Russian industry has depended on these transportation facilities. Within one year after the railway to Batoum was opened the production increased by over 4,000,000 barrels, where prior to 1880 the total production had rarely risen to a total of 3,000,000 barrels. Similar expansion continued during the succeeding fifteen years, rapidly advanced Russia to the posi tion of a close rival of the United States, until this country was finally left far behind as regards the the amount of crude oil produced. But the most surprising part of it all is that this whole phe nomenal growth came in the short space of twenty years, reckoning from 1878, the year when the re moval of the government tax first made profitable operation possible.
One other leading factor which has aided greatly in the Russian expansion is the character of many of the wells. The introduction of American methods of boring was immediately followed by the frequent striking of gigantic gushers. Tap ping the deeper strata, which the dug wells could not touch, almost invariably yielded oil in un heard-of quantities. Nothing approaching these oil fountains had ever been seen before; in fact, even the most conservative accounts of the wonder ful strikes seemed so incredible that the truth of the reports was generally doubted in this country ; and the Russian industry was badly demoralized for a time by the uncontrollable, unsalable quan tities obtained. Wells spouting fifty, a hundred, a hundred and twenty-five thousand barrels a day were common occurrences. The heavy Baku oil carries with it a great amount of sand and often the most violent of these gushers destroyed or seri ously injured surrounding property by burying it under a deluge of sand and oil. Roads and houses were flooded with oil, wells were blocked, and roofs gave way under the load of sand, while fearful conflagrations resulted from accidental ignition of the far-reaching spray or gas. But, in spite of the losses which have been incurred thereby, this flow ' ing character results in a very much higher yield per well, approaching 100 barrels a day, or twenty to thirty times the average of wells in this country.
By 1900 the Russian wells had increased so rap idly that they were yielding more than half the world's supply of crude oil and exceeded the out put in the United States by more than 12,000,000 barrels. The succeeding years, however, brought in the enormous quantities from Texas and Cali fornia, doubling the previous figures for the United States. At the same time domestic difficulties gave Russian expansion a severe setback. The turmoil incident to the war with Japan and civil uprisings affected the oil business perhaps more than any other industry. The accumulation of enormous stooks in storage, with no market, brought on a cri sis just when the boom was well under way. Then
followed the race war and massacres between Ar menians and Tartars of the Caucasus district, in 1905, during which sad havoc was wrought in the oil fields. Many of the wealthy and prominent Armenians were important oil operators and the Tartar frenzy was directed against their property as well as their persons. On all sides derricks, workshops, offices, and laborers' houses were wrecked. Fires were set and spread unchecked in all directions. In some sections the destruction wrought during the reign of terror was well nigh complete. Over a thousand wells were destroyed in the different districts; hardly more than half that number remained after the trouble was over, reducing the production to about one third of its former extent.
The work of repairing the damage, however, be gan as soon as the uprisings were quelled, the gov ernment making loans to those who had suffered the worst losses, in order to hasten as much as pos sible the regeneration of the industry. Already the production has begun to increase again. It has also been discovered that the productive lo calities are of far greater extent than the area for merly developed, hence there is every reason to suppose that the output will soon reach and sur pass its former annual rate. In spite of its bur dens, the Caspian district seems destined to be a persistent rival of the American oil fields.
The successful development of this Baku indus try is in many respects the most romantic chapter in the whole story of petroleum. Whatever has been accomplished there, has been done in the face of difficulties and natural obstacles unparalleled in any other oil field in the world. Situated in a des ert, and separated by thousands of miles from the important centers of European and Asiatic popu lation, it has had to create markets and means of reaching them before any growth was profitable. Drilling the wells even by the best modern meth ods often entails difficulties and expenses many times in excess of the most costly operations in other localities. Ordinary pumping is impossible on account of the sand in the oil, so that in non flowing wells, it is necessary to use a cumbersome bailer, consisting of a long hollow tube, with an automatic valve in the lower end. Gigantic gush ers not infrequently have brought to the operators practical ruin instead of riches, through the dam age done. Every stick of timber used in the in dustry down to the very staves for barrels had to come, for many years, hundreds of miles down the rivers and across the Caspian. Even water for the boilers is scarce, that of the Caspian being salt and unsatisfactory. On top of it all has been the worthless character of the only labor to be had; unreliable, inefficient, ignorant Orientals, imposing a constant burden on the industry.