THE FRUIT REGION OF MERCED. 



THE fruit lands now offered for settlement by the Crocker 

 Land and Water Company are situated in the very center of Cali- 

 fornia. Besides being so favorably located, they offer advantages 

 which are not possessed by any other lands in the State. The 

 fifty-five thousand acres, which are now for the first time subdi- 

 vided, consist of virgin pasture and wheat lands, which have 

 become too valuable to be devoted to their former use. They 

 are now being irrigated by the most expensive and magnificen; 

 irrigation system on the continent, by a canal capable of carrying 

 4,000 cubic feet of water per second, and by the artificial lake 

 Yosemite, the most extensive irrigation reservoir ever built in 

 America. The water fiom this system is abundant and continu- 

 ous ; it comes from the snow-capped Sierra, from the Falls of the 

 Yosemite, and will suffice to irrigate and fertilize hundreds of 

 thousands of acres more than are offered for sale. 



These fruit and horticultural lands are situated in the warm 

 belt of the foot-hills of the Sierra Nevada, protected by sheltering 

 hills, traversed by natural creeks and surrounded by the grandest 

 scenery known to man. The famous Yosemite is almost within 

 sight, and the high -peaked Sierra can be reached in a day's 

 journey. The Coast Range, with Mt. Diablo, is in full view, while 

 the fresh breezes from the San Pablo Bay temper the climate, and 

 contribute to make it one of the finest, most salubrious and most 

 enjoyable in the world. Through the irrigation water always at 

 the command of the horticulturist, our lands are being trans- 

 formed into beautiful orchards, vineyards and meadows. The 

 peach, the prune, the apricot, the pear and the raisin-grape are 



