Arkansas Black

History

Beach, citing Stinson’s bulletin for the Arkansas experiment station, gave the Arkansas Black’s origin as Benton County, Arkansas, where it bore its first fruit about 1870¹. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas says that early sources date it to 1870, in the orchard of a Mr Brathwaite, then about a mile and a half north-west of Bentonville³. The first description Beach could find was Van Deman’s, published in 1886¹.

Beach named it, with Arkansas, Paragon and Stayman Winesap, as one of the best known of the many seedlings of Winesap². It is grown in the Ozarks of both Arkansas and Missouri³.

Few large orchards were planted with it, but in the late nineteenth century the Arkansas Black may have made up 10 to 15 per cent of Arkansas’s apple crop³. By 1920 codling moth had to be sprayed; the cost of that and of washing off the residue, years of drought and then the Depression undermined the state’s commercial orchards, and the Arkansas Black declined with them³. It is still grown in small orchards, and by an estimate reported in the Encyclopedia of Arkansas (as revised in January 2026) it makes up three to five per cent of the state’s apple crop³.

It is not the same apple as the older Arkansas, or Mammoth Black Twig, which grew from seed planted about 1833 near Rhea Mills, Arkansas¹. Thomas (1903) listed the two as one and gave Mammoth Black Twig as a name of Arkansas Black, but Beach found them “decidedly distinct” in tree and fruit and blamed the likeness of their names¹. They differ in ploidy too: in a USDA survey Arkansas Black was diploid and Arkansas triploid⁵.

The fruit

As grown in New York the fruit was of medium size or smaller, rarely large, and nearly round¹. The smooth, somewhat waxy skin is yellow under a lively red that deepens to purplish red or almost black on the side facing the sun, and Beach counted it “one of the most beautiful of apples”¹. The flesh is distinctly yellow, very firm, rather fine-grained, crisp and moderately juicy, with a sprightly subacid flavour that Beach rated good to very good¹; the Encyclopedia of Arkansas adds that it is aromatic³.

In Arkansas it ripens in October or November³. Beach gave its season as December to April or later, noted that it keeps well through the cold-storage season, and found that it commanded a good price in market¹.

Growing

Beach found the tree moderately vigorous but unproductive, and thought it unsuitable for general planting¹. It is susceptible to apple scab and fire blight; scab can be controlled by spraying, and fire blight is best checked by pruning out infected wood³.

Uses

It is eaten fresh and used in pies, cobblers and other dishes³. Before refrigeration was widespread its fruit could also be dried, pressed for juice, cider or vinegar, or made into apple butter³.

Where the sources disagree

• Origin. Beach, after Stinson, and the Encyclopedia of Arkansas date it to about 1870 in Benton County^1,3. The Shiloh Museum of Ozark History notes conflicting accounts: some say it first fruited in 1879 on Mr Braithwait’s farm near Bentonville, others that DeKalb Holt produced it near Lincoln⁴.
• Parentage. Beach counted it a seedling of Winesap²; the Encyclopedia of Arkansas says only that it was originally thought to be one³.
• Keeping. Beach found it a good keeper, in season from December to April or later¹; the Encyclopedia of Arkansas gives a storage season of two to four months³.