8 BULLETIN 503, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGPJCULTUEE. 



The Tva3'^s in which these and other vegetables may be prepared 

 for the table are very numerous and have been discussed in an earlier 

 bulletin of the department.^ 



The various vegetables included in the table of composition have 

 each some special characteristics which merit discussion, so the more 

 important will be taken up separately. 



BEETS. 



Although the greater part of the total crop of beets is used for the 

 production of sugar or for the feeding of farm animals, beets are 

 used in such large quantities as a human food that they rank as one 

 of the most common table vegetables. White or yellow table beets 

 are occasionally seen, but the red ones are the most usual. The flavor 

 is more delicate in the summer varieties than in the later maturing 

 sorts; Each year the southern-grown beets are becoming more com- 

 mon in our winter market ancl are superseding the large, fully 

 matured roots which were formerly so often stored as winter vege- 

 tables and which, late in the season, often develop a rather bitter and 

 unpleasant flavor. It is sometimes said that beets are more nutritious 

 than turnips, carrots, etc., but a comparison of the values for average 

 composition given in the table (p. 3) does not substantiate this 

 statement, all these vegetables being very much alike as regards the 

 proportion of nutritive material present. 



Cane sugar constitutes a considerable portion of the total carbo- 

 hydrates of beets, as high as 10 per cent or more having been often 

 reported. Some reducing sugar is also present. In the varieties of 

 beets grown for sugar making the percentage of cane sugar is con- 

 siderably higher, sometimes 20 per cent or more, though such high 

 values are the exception. Beets are sometimes said to be very rich 

 in cellulose, but this does not seem to be the case with American 

 varieties whose average composition has been quoted. Wlien beets 

 are cooked, a part of the sugar and other soluble nutrients which 

 they contain is extracted, but how much material is removed can 

 not be slated, as no cooking experiments with beets have been found 

 on record. 



Beets are frequently canned at home for Avinter use, and the com- 

 mercial canned article is a very well known product. The canned 

 goods have practically the same chemical composition as freshly 

 cooked beets. Some of the girls' canning clubs, which the State and 

 county organizations and the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture are conducting in cooperation, have put up young beets with 

 the tops left on, or have canned both beets and tops together — an 

 excellent way of providing iron-rich greens in the winter diet, as 

 h2Gx, top<3 make a very palatable potherb. 



1 L'. S. Dept. Ai?r., Farmers' I'.ul. -JSO (I'tOO). 



