ARKANSAS, one of the larger states of the American Union, taking its name from the river A. Throughout its entire length, it occupies the right bank of the Mississippi, being separated by that stream, towards the e., from Tennessee and the n. half of Mis sissippi. Its boundaries to the s.w. and n. are purely arbitrary and conventional, and are best learned from a map. With a length of 240 m., and an average breadth of about 225, the area of A. is 52,198 sq. m., being pretty nearly the same as that of England proper. In 1870, out of the equivalent 33,406,720 acres, only 1,859,821 were cultivated, very little more than of the whole, or than of the lands liable to taxation as being allotted and occupied, The principal products of this cultivated land were 740,001) bushels of wheat, 13,382,145 bushels of Indian corn, 529,000 bushels of oats, and 247.908 bales of cotton. A. bad in 1820 only 14,273 inhabitants; in 1870, the pop. was 484.471, of whom 122,169 were colored. Though nominally colonized by the French in 1685. it was still virtually a wilderness, when purchased as a part of Louisiana by the United States in 1803. I t.was only in 1819 and 1836 respectively that it became lint a territory, and then a state of the union, Thelown4 oj roe the principal being Little Rock, the seat of government, with 12,380 inhabitants, which is about four times as populous as any other of the principal towns, which are, Camden, Fort Smith, Pine Bluff, Helena, Hot Springs, and Princeton.
In climate and productions A. occupies, as it were, an intermediate position between the states of the w. and those of the s. A. is rich in minerals, particularly in manganese, zinc, and gypsum. It also contains the principal varieties of coal—cannel, anthracite, and bituminous. It likewise possesses lead-ores, which are said to contain a large pro portion of silver. The manufactures of the state are comparatively insignificant.
The internal improvements of A. consist in great measure of plank-roads and levees or embankments against the Mississippi. In 1875, there were 810 tn. of railway in A. The state, however, is comparatively independent of works of this description, pene trated as it is by so many navigable rivers—the A., the White river, the St. Francis, the Red river, the Washita, etc.
In 1870, the public indebtedness of A., contracted mainly in support of back:., amounted to $4.151,152, nearly half of it representing " interest accrued and unpaid." The taxation for the same year was $2,866,890, chiefly the result of a direct assessment on property of almost every description—lands, houses, furniture, horses, mules, cattle, stock-in-trade of all trades, gold watches, jewelry, etc.
The state legislature meets only once in two years. To the lower house of congress, A., in the proportion of its population, sends four representatives; while, like every other state, it has two senators in the upper house.