San Francisco has been called "a city of 100 hills." It has a population of nearly 300,000 inhabitants, amongst whom are no less than 50 millionaires. Its harbour is known all over the globe as the "Golden Gate," and it has answered well to its name, for an entrance to its vast resources has made the fortune of multitudes of people, and many going there now are laying the foundations for future wealth.
The lands of California have the two essentials for successful culture—a rich soil and genial climate, with plenty of sun, yet never too hot and never too cold for out-door work, and most of its domestic animals are never housed, and require no food but wild herbage.
FRUIT CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA.
Our lands at Merced, in California, offer to gentlemen wishing to make a first or a fresh start in life a really good opportunity. It is difficult to conceive how men with energy, enterprise, and a little capital, can be content to sit in an office in foggy, blocked-up London, "quill driving" from year's end to year's end, when a prospect is afforded them, such as we now offer, of establishing a pleasant home in a luxurious land, with a sunny, genial climate, and within about a fortnight's travel of England, and where they would have the liberty of being their own masters, and lay the foundation of a future competency.
CURRENCY.
As the currency in California is dollars, not pounds, we must ask our readers to accustom themselves to dollars. A dollar is 100 cents, and, roughly speaking, a cent is equivalent to a halfpenny, so that a dollar would be worth, of our money, four shillings and twopence. Its value, however, varies a few cents according to the place where it is exchanged. Bank of England notes or pounds are never worth less than four shillings and twopence, i.e., 480 cents or halfpennies, which, of course, is four dollars and 80 cents, there being 100 cents in a dollar. The decimal currency is extremely simple when once understood. Never less than 4.80 is given for an English pound, but sometimes 4.82 and 4.85 is obtained.
MERCED.
The lands I have for sale are situate in the County of Merced, in California, about 150 miles by rail from the City of San Francisco, They are designated "British Colony," and at the nearest point are just one mile from the boundary of the town of Merced, and two miles from the railway station, hotel, shops, etc. Merced town is lighted by gas and electricity, has water laid on, telephones, telegraphs, Court House, Episcopal Church, Presbyterian Church, Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Methodist Church, South Methodist Church, Baptist Church, and Catholic Church, two schools, shops of various kinds; two railroads, the main one running up to San Francisco, and down to Los Angeles and on to New Orleans, etc., and the other, a branch line to Stockton, Sacramento, etc. Merced is 175 feet above the level of the sea; it is a pleasant little town, affords some congenial society, and I firmly believe will, before many years have passed, become an important centre, because my 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.