The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-10-05
THE STANFORD UNIVERSITY.
The Richest College in the Worid-It
Wealth Hard to Estimate.

The Richest College in the World-Its
Wealth Hard to Estimate.
The newspaper accounts OF the estate
left by the late Senator Stanford have
started speculation as to the value OF
his endowment of the university which
bears his name. Few people have any
definite idea of the actual sum of
money represented by the property
| whicls will come into the possession OF
the trustees of the university when
Mrs. Stanford dies.
That property consists of three pieces
of land-Palo Alto, s.4Oo acres, of
which large portion is under high
cultivation, being planted in vines
which have been found to sIlit the soil:
Gridley. 1900 acres, which have been
planted to wheat and will probably be
gradually planted in vines, and Vina,
SO, 600 acres, of which between 1000 and
5000 acres are planted in vines. OF
these three the Vina estate is, of
course, the most valuable. There are,
in round numbers, 5000. 900 grapevines
on the estate. which yielded last year
1900 tons of grapes. When all the
vines now planted are in full bearing
the product will be something like
10000 tons of grapes per year: and the
vineyard is growing from year to year.
A large portion of the Vina estate is
used for raising horses of all the
various breeds, and other portions are
employed as COW pastures, sheep past
ures and hog pastures 1t is difficult
to form an adequate idea of the money
value of such land at the present time
and almost impossible to guess
what it will be when a better knowl-
edge of the peculiarities of soil
and climate and the handling of
the grapes will enable California
the foreign product. But land which
will grow five tons of grapes to the
acre has a definite and well-known
value in France and Germany. and
there is no reason why it should be
different here. 1t is worth as nearly
as possible 81, 900 an acre in the Gironde
and on the Rhine, and though it could
not be sold for any such sum at present
in this state, it will earn interest on
that amount. Thus the Vina vineyard
alone represents an endowment to the
college of $4,000, 900 and a present in
come of about $780, 900 a year. This, it
will be remembered, is exclusive of the
Palo Alto property, the Gridley ranch,
and the fifty-odd thousand acres of
land at Vina not planted in vines. If
all the land in the three properties
snh 10
planted in vines it would represent the
enormous sum of 10000, 900 and an
annual income of over 81, 900, 900.
No university in America has any
thing like such an endowment. Ac-
cording to the college registers leading
universities are endowed as follows:
Columbia, Sl3, 900, 900; Harvard, 81, Oo0,-
900: Yale, $4,000. 900; University Of
California, S7,0O0.0OO: Johns Hopkins,
S3,OO0,OO0. The endowment of the Lee
land Stanford cannot be added to the
list, because no one can tell its real
amount. The Vina vineyard represents
IS. 100000 at present, with possible
extension to over ten times that amount
in the early future, but no one pos
sesses the information required to APP
praise Palo Alto or Gridley. It may be
said, without fearing contradiction, that
its resources are far in excess of those
of any other educational esta blishment
in the world, and that it will never
need to deny itself anything, from
library to an observatory or a labora-
tory, on the ground of expense. 1t is
quite possible that when the properties
which are devoted to its support yield
their full income it will find it possible
to abolish all fees for tuition and to
reduce the charge for board below that
which pupil would cost at home. =
San Francisco Argonaut