Black Ben Davis or Guno: A Question of Right, Truth and Justice

Abstract

For two years at the turn of the century, a vehement argument raged across the Arkansas-Missouri border over the nomenclature of an apple. This battle called the "Gano-Black Ben Davis controversey," embroiled one of the country's largest nurseries (Stark Bros.) and the horticultural societies of what was then two of the nation's most important apple-producing states, Arkansas and Missouri. Profit, pride and patriotism were probably the motive forces behind the separate factions. The framework of the controversy was this: Arkansans contended that these were two distinct cultivars, while most of the Missourians claimed the two were the same. They also claimed "the right to name" based on the older and more-or-less traceable history of the Gano.