Roots. 



29 



2. That parsnips, however, differ in composition from white 



carrots by containing less sugar, the deficiency of which 

 is replaced by starch, a substance not occurring in 

 carrots. 



3. That white Belgian carrots generally contain 5 to 6 per 



cent, more water than parsnips. Thus fresh parsnips 

 contain on an average 18 per cent, of solid substances, 

 whilst fresh carrots on an average contain but 12 per 

 cent. Hence the greater nutritive value of parsnips as 

 compared with carrots. 



4. That parsnips contain twice as much ready-formed fat 



as carrots. They ought, therefore, to be superior as 

 a fattening material in the feeding of stock. 



5. That the proportion of cellular fibre in parsnips is very 



much greater than in carrots. In both it is large. 



The cellular or woody fibre in parsnips, carrots, turnips, 

 mangolds, and swedes, must not be regarded as useless in the 

 animal economy, for there can be little doubt that the soft and 

 young fibres of these roots are readily converted in the stomach 

 of animals into gum and sugar, and applied in the system to feed 

 the respiration, or for the laying on of fat. Compared with 

 turnips we find that parsnips contain 6 to 8 per cent, less water, 

 and with mangolds 5 to 6 per cent. less. There is thus nearly 

 twice as much dry solid matter in parsnips as in turnips, and 

 consequently a ton of parsnips ought to go as far as a fattening 

 material as two tons of white turnips. 



Mangolds. Mangolds have been analysed by Professor Way, 

 Johnston, Wolff, and myself, but as it will be of no practical 

 utility to mention these various analyses in detail, I shall leave 

 them unnoticed, and state at once the average composition of 

 good mangold wurtzel, which has been calculated from 13 pub- 

 lished analyses of this root : 



Mangolds, it will be observed, contain on an average as much 

 water and dry matters as carrots, and, on the whole, are almost 

 as nutritious as carrots, if they are given to fattening beasts after 

 a few months' keeping. When newly taken out of the ground 

 mangold wurtzels contain a peculiar acrid substance, which has 



