PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-THIRD FRUIT-GROWERS 9 CONVENTION. 83 



And the cost of instruction is considerable; probably not less than 

 $15,000 a year will be required for special instructors who will be 

 employed there, and that, of course, will be quite an item of expense 

 in the operation of the farm. For that reason, I simply want to add 

 to my "previous statement that if I gave Mr. Berwick the impression 

 this morning that the farm was to be run extravagantly and without 

 the idea of making things profitable, that was not the impression which 

 I intended to convey. 



MR. GORDON. I understood that M. Theodore Kearney, of Fresno, 

 left the State University a property estimated at a value of about one 

 million dollars. I would like to ask Professor Wickson whether the 

 University has got possession of it and, if so, what is the intention — is 

 it to be kept as an experimental farm or what? I think it is due the 

 fruit-growers of California to know something about that farm as well 

 as about the one at Davisville. 



PROFESSOR WICKSON. I am very glad indeed to make reply to 

 that question. The Kearney estate is still in the courts; it has not 

 been distributed. It is being managed by the executor. The trust 

 company was executor under the will. There are certain contestants 

 who have filed claims. The heirs of Denis Kearney, who died a few 

 months ago, have their claims before the court, but no hearing has yet 

 been had. There can not be a distribution, of course, until these claim- 

 ants are disposed of. How long it will take them to make out their 

 case, whether they can establish a claim of relationship, nobody can 

 tell until it actually comes into court. As there has been no hearing, 

 there is no date at which distribution can be expected. We simply 

 don't know when that will come. The estate is being managed by the 

 trust company as executor, and I understand that, owing to the par- 

 ticularly good prices of products during the last two years, a net profit 

 of somewhere between $70,000 and $80,000 a year for two years has 

 been made by the trust company, which goes into the estate. There is 

 a considerable quantity of claims outside of direct incumbrances, debts 

 of one sort and another, which this possible $150,000 of net gains for 

 the last two years will go toward liquidating. That business the trust 

 company, under the court, is managing. The University has nothing 

 whatever yet, except expectations. The plan which we shall carry out 

 will be to follow as far as possible two things, one which we conceive to 

 be of value to that district, and secondly, to observe as closely as 

 possible Mr. Kearney's wishes as expressed in his will, and agricultural 

 instruction and research covering both points. I do not conceive that 

 it will be of advantage to us to operate anything like 5,400 acres of 

 land. Probably two thirds of that can be sold and the money used as 

 an endowment to meet the expenses of the institution which will be 

 established there. I do not believe in selling it, however, until we do 



