Alfalfa: A leguminous plant seeded for hay.

Automatic Baler: Machines pulled by tractors that pick up a windrow, compress the hay into a bale, tie it, and drop the completed bale out behind.

Bale: A neat rectangular shaped bundle of hay that has been compressed and bound with twine or wire.

Barrel: A common unit for measuring petroleum. One barrel contains about 159 litres. Or, there are approximately 6.3 barrels in one cubic metre. 

Bitumen: Petroleum that exists in the semisolid or solid phase in natural deposits.

Blow Down: Trees that grow up in the shelter of a dense forest can blow down if exposed to strong winds. Logging methods that thin a stand of trees too much or leave small, exposed groups of standing trees can increase the risk of blow-down.

Bonus Payment: The amount paid at land auctions for Crown mineral rights.

Cable-Tool Rig: A type of drilling device used from the 1850s to the 1930s that employed a heavy chisel-like bit which was suspended on a cable and dropped repeatedly into the rock at the bottom of the hole.

Carbon Dioxide: A non-toxic gas produced from decaying materials, respiration of plant and animal life, and combustion of organic matter, including fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide is the most common greenhouse gas produced by human activities.

Coal Gas: A mixture of hydrogen, carbon monoxide and methane, produced by distilling coal, that was once used for heating and lighting.

Coke: Solid carbon that remains in the refining process after cracking of hydrocarbons.

Coking: A process used to break down heavy oil molecules into lighter ones by removing the carbon which remains as a coke residue.

Coniferous Trees: The largest and most widely distributed order of gymnosperms, containing about 49 genera with approximately 570 species most of which are evergreen trees. Typically, conifers show a pyramidal growth pattern and bear simple leaves, often needles or scales. Conifers are also commercially important as a source of timber for the papermaking, building, and furniture industries. They are generally faster growing and develop a less dense wood than other trees. They are also known as softwood trees or Coniferales.

Condensate: Hydrocarbons, usually produced with natural gas, that are liquid at normal pressure and temperature.

Conservation: The planning and management of resources so as to secure their wise use and continuity of supply while maintaining and enhancing their quality, value, and diversity.

Conventional Crude Oil: Petroleum found in liquid form, flowing naturally or capable of being pumped without further processing or dilution.

Core: A continuous cylinder of rock, usually from five to 10 centimetres in diameter, cut from the bottom of a wellbore as a sample of an underground formation.

Custom Outfit: A major group of men who own one or more specialized machines, and travel from farm to farm doing jobs for pay or a share in the crop.

Cuttings: Chips and small fragments of rock cut by a drill bit and brought to the surface by the flow of drilling mud.

Deciduous Trees: In the Northern Hemisphere these trees grow in forests often referred to as "Deciduous Summer Forests" and typically have a 5-6 month growing season that may range from between 150 to 200 days. These trees, also called hardwoods, are characterized by green leaves that shed when the weather gets cool, like in autumn. Several trees make up a deciduous forest including broadleaf deciduous hardwood trees such as oak, hickory, maple, ash, beech and others. They are important to the forestry industry and are used to make many familiar products such as furniture and boxes. 

Density: The heaviness of crude oil, indicating the proportion of large, carbon-rich molecules, generally measured in kilograms per cubic metre, or degrees on the American Petroleum Institute (API) gravity scale. In Western Canada oil up to 900 kilograms per cubic metre is considered light to medium crude—oil above this density is deemed as heavy oil or bitumen.

Dragline: A power shovel that operates by being dragged by cables at the end of an arm. Used for quarrying and opencast mining.

Drilling Mud: Fluid circulated down the drill pipe and up the annulus during drilling to remove cuttings, cool and lubricate the bit, and maintain desired pressure in the well.

Dry Hole: An unsuccessful well; a well not capable of producing commercial quantities of oil or gas.

Dump Rake: A machine used to gather the hay cut by the mower into piles.

Ecosystem: A community of interdependent organisms together with the environment that they inhabit and with which they interact.

Established Reserves: Those reserves recoverable under current technology and present and anticipated economic conditions.

Farmount: An agreement between oil companies whereby the owner of a lease who is not interested in drilling at the time agrees to assign the lease or a portion of it to another company that will earn a share of the production by undertaking exploration.

Field: The geographical area encompassing a group of one or more underground petroleum pools sharing the same or related infrastructure.

Flaring: Flaring is the burning of natural gas that cannot be processed or sold. Flaring disposes of gas, and it releases emissions into the atmosphere. Today it is an important safety measure at natural gas facilities.

Formation: A designated subsurface layer that is composed throughout of substantially the same kind of rock or rock types.

Geochemistry: The science of chemistry applied to rocks and minerals; geochemists analyse the contents of subsurface rocks for the presence of organic matter associated with oil deposits.

Geologist: A person trained in the study of the Earth's crust; petroleum geologists search for traps that could contain petroleum and recommend drilling locations.

Geophysics: The science that deals with the relations between the physical features of the Earth and forces that produce them. Geophysics includes the study of seismology and magnetism.

Gusher: A well that comes in with such great pressure that the oil or gas blows out of the wellhead like a geyser. Gushers are rare today because of improved drilling technology, especially the use of drilling mud to control downhole pressure.

Hay: Dry fodder for animals made from plants.

Hay Rack: Farm wagons that have been adapted with a large basket deck to haul hay.

Heavy Oil: Dense, viscous oil, with a high proportion of bitumen, that is difficult to extract with conventional techniques and is more costly to refine.

Hot Water Process: A method for separating bitumen from oil sand using hot water and caustic soda, developed by Karl Clark of the Alberta Research Council.

Hydrocarbons: A large class of liquid, solid or gaseous organic compounds, containing only carbon and hydrogen, that are the basis of almost all petroleum products.

In-situ: In its original place; in position; in-situ recovery refers to various methods used to recover deeply buried bitumen deposits, including steam injection, solvent injection and firefloods.

Kelly: The first and sturdiest joint of the drill string in conventional rotary drilling rigs. A thick-walled, hollow steel forging with four flat sides that fits into a square hole in the rotary table.

Landman: A member of the exploration team whose primary duties are formulating and carrying out exploration strategies and managing an oil company's relations with its landowners and partners, including securing and administering oil and gas leases and other agreements.

Lease: An agreement between two or more parties where the owner of the land grants another party the right to drill and produce petroleum substances in exchange for payment.

Light Crude Oil: Liquid petroleum that has a low density and flows freely at room temperature.

Limestone: Calcium carbonate-rich sedimentary rocks in which oil or gas reservoirs are often found.

Luvisolic Soil: Luvisolic soils develop on a wide variety of parent materials underneath mixed deciduous-coniferous forests. They cover 52 percent of the province and are generally found in imperfectly drained to moderately well-drained sites. Most luvisols tend to be less productive for agricultural purposes because of their lower organic content and shorter growing season.

Medium Crude Oil: Liquid petroleum with a density between that of light and heavy crude oil.

Mineral Rights: The rights to explore for and produce the resources below the surface.

Mower: A machine designed to cut grasses and other forage crops to be cured for hay.

Non-Renewable Resource: Natural resources that cannot be regenerated in a human life span.

Oil Sands: A deposit of sand saturated with bitumen.

Overshot Stacker: This is a large fork mounted on two long arms. The fork swings up until the hay falls backwards off the fork on to the top of the stack.

Paleontologist: A person trained in paleontology - the study of plant and animal life in past geological time through the study of fossil plants and animals, their relationship to present-day plants and animals and their environments.

Palynologist: A paleontologist who specializes in fossil pollens and spores.

Petroleum: A naturally occurring mixture composed predominantly of hydrocarbons in the gaseous, liquid or solid phase.

Pinnacle Reef: A conical formation, higher than it is wide, usually composed of limestone, in which hydrocarbons might be trapped.

Pool: A natural underground reservoir containing an accumulation of petroleum.

Porosity: The volume of spaces within rock that might contain oil and gas (like the amount of water a sponge can hold); the open or void space within rock.

Proved Reserves: Hydrocarbons in known reservoirs that can be recovered with a great degree of certainty under existing technological and economic conditions.

Renewable Resource: Natural resources that regenerate in short periods of time (months, years or decades).

Reservoir (pool): A porous and permeable underground rock formation containing a natural accumulation of crude oil or natural gas that is confined by impermeable rock or water barriers, and is separate from other reservoirs.

Rotary Rig: A modern drilling unit capable of drilling a well with a bit attached to a rotating column of steel pipe.

Roughneck: A floorhand in an oil-drilling operation. These workers used to have a reputation for rowdiness.

Royalty: The owner's share of production or revenues retained by government or freehold mineral rights holders.

Sandstone: A compacted sedimentary rock composed mainly of quartz or feldspar; a common rock in which oil, natural gas and/or water accumulate.

Sedimentary Rocks: Rocks formed by the accumulation of sediment or organic materials and therefore likely to contain hydrocarbons.

Seismic Surveys: Refers to studies done to gather and record patterns of induced shock wave reflections from underground layers of rock which are used to create detailed models of the underlying geological structure.

Side Delivery Rake: A machine used to rake hay cut by a mower into long rows called windrows.

Stack: A large pile of hay built up for storage. The hay in the stack is packed and shaped to shed water.

Sweep Rake: A machine used to collect hay from piles or windrows and haul it to the stack.

Sulphur: Elemental sulphur, recovered as a by-product of natural gas and oil sands production, is of growing importance in the Alberta economy. The province has 55 sour gas processing plants and accounts for 45 per cent of the world's sulphur trade. Sulphur production from proven reserves now stands at 5.6 million tonnes per year.

Surface Rights: The rights to work on the surface of the land.

Sustainable Development: Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (as defined by United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development).

Synthetic Crude (or Upgraded Crude): A blend of hydrocarbons similar to light crude oil. It is produced by processing bitumen or heavy oil at a facility called an upgrader.

Viscosity: The resistance to flow or "stickiness" of a fluid.

Water Witching: The ability to detect underground water reserves by means of a divining rod.

Well-logging Instruments: Instruments lowered into a well to provide specific information on the condition of the well.

Wellbore: A hole drilled or bored into the earth, usually cased with metal pipe, for the production or oil or gas.

Western Canada Sedimentary Basin: Canada's largest region of sedimentary rocks, and the largest source of current oil and gas production.  Alberta makes up the majority of this Basin.

Wildcat: Traditionally: drilling rigs and wells. Today it is a well drilled on unproven ground (A wildcat well).

Windrows: Long rows of hay in the field made by rolling up the swath using a side delivery rake.