Are You Looking for the Best Home Site in America? [Louisiana Land Promotional]

[Johnstown, PA]: Blauch & Benshoff. Softcover. Very good. Undated, ca. 1909. Four page printed circular, 7.75" x 5.5". Folding creases, small chips and tears; very good. Claiming to quote an unnamed "prominent Illinois Central Railroad, official," the Johnstown, Pennsylvania real estate firm of Blauch & Benshoff asserts that "Louisiana's swamp lands will support a populations of nearly 5,000,000 people when they are reclaimed and properly tilled and the Illinois Central railroad intends to see that these millions of acres are brought into fertility within a comparatively short period of time." The idea that swamp reclamation is an achievable goal is supported by just one example -- the drainage of Klamath Lake in Oregon, which began in 1906. But these promoters are sure the Illinois Central will find a path to success--perhaps by bringing in dredges no longer needed for digging the Panama Canal--such that that "Louisiana should be known as the garden of Chicago, Memphis, and St Louis." Statistics are provided on "astounding" crop values," and we are assured that Louisiana also has "vast herds of cattle, immense lumber industries, the largest salt mines in the world, and the whitest sugar." In a land where "fertilizers are not necessary," "yearly production exceeds all others," and "no failures are recorded," what could go wrong?