95 The Agricultural Economy of the American Bottoms 
During most of the nineteenth century, the American Bottoms was 
noted chiefly for agricultural productivity. The only large concentra- 
tion of population was in the East St. Louis area, on the opposite bank 
of the Mississippi River from St. Louis. Since 1896, however, when the 
Niedringhaus interests moved their enameling and stamping plant from 
St. Louis to the East Side and founded Granite City,! a notable expan- 
sion of the Southern Urban and Suburban District has taken place. 
A similarly rapid expansion of the Northern Urban and Suburban Dis- 
trict began with the construction of an oil refinery near the mouth of 
Wood River in 1907.2 In both districts the multiplication of industrial 
plants has been accompanied by the development of residential sub- 
divisions. 
The superimposition of transportation, urban, and suburban struc 
tures on the agricultural pattern of the American Bottoms has resulted 
in a complex, composite pattern of land utilization. As a consequence 
of urbanization, the agricultural pattern itself has undergone significant 
modifications. 
THE COMPOSITION OF THE ACRICULTURAL PATTERN 
General considerations—The American Bottoms is included in an 
agricultural subdivision of Illinois known as the Southwestern Area 
(Fig. 5). Nearly two-thirds of the income from farming in this area is 
‘derived from sales of wheat, dairy products, and poultry.” § 
Almost three-fourths of the farming area of the American Bottoms is 
in field crops (Fig. 6). More than half the remaining farm acreage is 
uncultivable because of lakes and swamps. The acreage of fallow land 
is more than half the acreage of lakes and swamps. Under “miscellan- 
ies,” (Fig. 6), is included the combined proportions of acreage used for 
farmsteads, pastures, and wood lots. The figure suggests that the in- 
come of the farming population is derived chiefly from field crops and 
that a sizable proportion of the acreage is of slight agricultural im- 
portance. 
ee 
tLewis F. Thomas, The Localisation a sie 8 . 1 
(St. Louis: Washington University, 1020 —— Activities in Metropolitan St. Lowts 
pares ing Telegraph, Centennial Number, January, 1936, 
SH. C. M. Case and K. H. Meyers, Sly ae eae . : 
University of Illinois, 1934), p. 182, Types of Farming in Illinois, Bulletin 403 (Urbana: 
