APPENDIX 
RESEARCH TECHNIQUE ! 
A general survey was made of the Mississippi flood plain between 
Alton and Chester, Illinois. A decision was reached to limit the de- 
tailed investigation to the notable expansion of this flood plain between 
Alton and Prairie du Pont Creek for the following reasons: (a) the area, 
embracing over one hundred thousand acres, was considered adequate; 
(b) the intermingling of rural and urban areas tended to set the widest 
part of the flood plain apart from the long narrow belt extending south- 
ward from the Prairie du Pont Creek to Chester; (c) the area apparently 
had a marked concentration of wealth, suggesting possibilities of an ad- 
vanced state of relationships with the natural environment; and (d) the 
term, American Bottoms, once applied to the entire flood plain between 
Alton and Chester, locally had come to mean only the notably widened 
part of the flood plain, thus further suggesting its importance as 4 defi- 
nite areal unit. 
A superficial consideration of the cultural pattern of this restricted 
area suggested that a major line of geographic research might embrace 
(a) an agricultural economy, (b) an urban and suburban economy, 
(c) a transportation economy, (d) a study of flood control and drainage, 
or (e) a detailed study of these various lines of research singly and in 
combination. The decision was reached to stress the agricultural 
economy. The area presented an opportunity to study the effects 0" 
agriculture of urbanization and closely related cultural phenomena. 
A continuous tract of land treated by the owner as a unit was con- 
sidered an ownership farm. All land designated by acreage is consid- 
ered farm land by the township assessors. However, for purposes of at 
agricultural study only those ownership units were included which were 
being used for agricultural purposes. The acreage of swamps was in- 
cluded only if it constituted a part of an operated farm. In the com- 
pilation of factual data, the ownership farm was considered the basic 
unit. } From the standpoint of land utilization by farmers, it was recog- 
nized that the acreage under the control of each farmer is more im- 
ecinerenenencicainiaaiancTO 
1An adaptation of a detailed discussion in the appendix of the dissertation. 
