60 EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 351 



project has been a determination of the effects of canning and quick- 

 freezing on the ascorbic acid and carotene content of blueberries. Such 

 determinations were made by the Kirk and Tressler method using the 

 Fisher electrometric titri-meter for ascorbic acid and the Moore and Ely 

 method using the Klett-Summerson photoelectric colorimeter for the 

 carotene of blueberries a few hours after picking, and after samples had 

 been preserved both by canning and freezing and with and without su- 

 gar. Samples of the preserved berries were analyzed at the end of 24 

 hours, one-half month, three months, six months, and nine months. By 

 this procedure the ascorbic acid and carotene content of low-bush blue- 

 berries and of seven varieties of high-bush blueberries were determined. 

 Ascorbic acid content ranged from 10.53 to 13.36 mgs. per 100 grams of 

 fresh material, and carotene ranged from 0.036 to 0.139 mgs. 



The addition of sugar to the berries in the freezing process helped to 

 retain the ascorbic acid during the freezing process. Blueberries frozen 

 without sugar lost from 10 to 14 per cent of the original amount of as- 

 corbic acid, but the* loss was not increased by storage of the berries. 

 Storage of the canned blueberries likewise resulted in loss of ascorbic 

 acid. The ascorbic content of the canned blueberries at the end of nine 

 months of storage was 33 to 44 per cent lower than the ascorbic acid of 

 the fresh blueberries. 



WiLMA D. Brewer, Tatiana Levcowich, S. R. Shimer, H. A. Davis 



Food Consumption of New Hampshire Families in Early Spring 



Information about the adequacy of diets of New Hampshire people 

 is necessary for a planned nutrition education and research program. 

 Questionnaires were prepared which contained a record of food servings 

 over a week's period. These were submitted to New Hampshire home- 

 makers and 570 forms were returned. Analysis of the data has been 

 completed. 



The results indicate that in iUarch, 1942, New Hampshire families 

 on the w^hole included adequate amounts of meat, eggs, green, yellow and 

 other vegetables in their diets. Fruits, particularly citrus fruits, were 

 lacking in the diets of families with incomes of $2000 or less. Village and 

 city families did not use adequate amounts of milk, whereas most farm 

 families included milk in their meals in amounts sufficient to meet the re- 

 quirement of one quart per child or one pint per adult per day. The num- 

 ber of weekly servings of the various feeds were compared with the 

 standards of the nutrition yardstick. 



Records of home production and preservation of fruits and vegetables 

 were also obtained. Farm home production of many fruits and vegetables 

 was adequate, but the production and preservation of tomatoes and greens 

 should be greatly increased. 



WiLMA D. Brewer, Alice M. King 



