364 ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



Just how much attention to pay to soil study is a prob- 

 lem I have not fully solved. Here is a study that ties 

 into both the physical and the industrial. We made use 

 of several soil maps of the State and of various counties 

 and tried to relate these studies to the uses of the land 

 in these same areas. 



Of course manufacturing and mining are both very 

 important in Illinois and both received their share of 

 time and attention, but the beef packing, the iron indus- 

 tries and the coal mining received a lion's share. 



Asa special phase of the transportation problem each 

 member of the class took some railroad for special con- 

 sideration, plotted main and branch lines on a base map 

 and did what he could to study and report on such topics 

 as terminals, cities en route, extensions outside the State, 

 history, passenger and freight service, financial condi- 

 tion and probable future. The history of canal and river 

 transportation and the possibilities and advantages of 

 revival discussed so much these days were given careful 

 consideration. 



The city of Chicago should have its full share of time, 

 not only on account of its size and rank, but also because 

 of a series of curiously interesting conditions that have 

 combined to make it important. Its remarkable physi- 

 ography brought out so well in the model by Siebenthal, 

 its relation to the Great Lakes and Great Plains, its re- 

 lation to centers of population, area, and manufacturing, 

 its rapid growth in spite of some local disadvantages, its 

 history, present industrial expansion and future possibil- 

 ities are topics each worthy of at least one lesson. We 

 made a map of the State on which we indicated growth 

 or decline of cities based on census figures of the last 

 forty years. Many cities offered distinct problems, some 

 of which were very difficult to solve. Each member of 

 the class made a special study of the cities in his area 

 and we all paid particular attention to the study of the 

 ten or twelve largest. 



The matter of distribution of population finds expres- 

 sion in many other ways besides in the location, size and 

 growth of cities. The general decline of rural popula- 

 tion, especially in the good farm areas, the increase in 



