clients have brought water from the Merced River more than twenty miles
off, by a system of canals, and have formed a reservoir of 640 acres in
extent, with an average depth of 30 feet, and thus have given facilities
for irrigating the country round the town. It is certain to become a
great Fruit-growing district, as its soil is so fully adapted for the
purpose. It is much nearer to San Francisco than Los Angeles, and is
nearer also than Fresno and other districts which have already made
themselves a name for Fruit culture.

The country around Merced has a natural fall, and is drained by many
creeks, which are dry in summer, but contain more or less water in
winter.


THE LANDS FOR SALE.

Merced is situated in the celebrated San Joaquin Valley (pronounced San
Wharkeen), which is an immense level of fertile land, the soil generally
being of a rich sandy loam, but in some districts, such as that I am now
offering for sale, of a deep rich black loam of a highly productive
nature, in fact, it is the decomposed vegetation and alluvial deposits
of past ages, than which nothing could be more fertile. We have good
evidence that the land is especially suited for the production of
prunes, apricots, pears, peaches, olives, plums, small Fruit, such as
strawberries, blackberries, sweet and common potatoes, garden stuff, and
alfalfa. Alfalfa (or lucerne) is a great crop in America in places where
there are no old meadow lands for the cows. The land is, of course,
suited for all cereal crops, too. All the Fruits named can be dried in
the sun without artificial heat.