Distributive Relationships of the Agricultural Pattern 126 
provements. In some instances, as near Roxana, subdivisions established 
from land taken out of cultivation have not been financially profitable 
(Fig. 30). The potential use of the land for industrial purposes is not 
conducive to the development of high class farms. 
Proximity to urban centers helps to assure farmers an adequate 
supply of labor when their work load is heavy. However, the wages 
expected by urban dwellers deter farmers from engaging any more help 
than is absolutely necessary. In many instances farmers with the aid 
of members of their families are able to do most of the work by a heavy 
investment in labor-saving machinery and by stressing crops that do 
not require a large outlay for labor. Some farmers, attracted by rela- 
tively high urban wages, secure part-time employment in factories. 
Some young people work in urban centers but live on farms operated 
by their parents. 
A moderate movement of city people into rural areas for the purpose 
of securing subsistence acreage is observable. However, farmers desir- 
ous of keeping out undesirable neighbors are reluctant to sell small 
portions of their farms. Real estate men, especially near East St. Louis, 
have been fairly successful in selling small tracts to city people. A few 
farmers with tractorized outfits live in urban centers either because 
(a) they are farming land which never had a set of improvements, or 
(b) former improvements have become worthless. Most farmers who 
live in urban communities farm small tracts intensively. 
The adoption of comprehensive and substantial plans for adequate 
drainage and for the control of floods would not have been practicable 
Without the additional wealth which urbanization has conferred on the 
American Bottoms. In 1907, when such improvements were under- 
taken extensively, over ninety per cent of the total assessed valuation 
of all taxable property of the American Bottoms, which reached a total 
slightly over one hundred million dollars, was on urban and suburban 
Property.1 From the standpoint of the value of property affected, the 
most important two levee and drainage districts of the American Bot- 
toms are (a) the East Side Levee and Sanitary District and (b) the 
Wood River Drainage and Levee District (Fig. 26). Both districts 
: 1p ersonal files of E. F. Harper, Chief Engineer for the East Side Levee and Sanitary 
District, East St. Louis, 1921. 
