396 Composition of the Parsnip and White Belgian Carrot, 



3. White Belgian carrots generally contain 5 to 6 per cent, 

 more water than parsnips. Thus fresh carrots contain on an 

 average but 12 per cent, of solid substances, whilst parsnips 

 contain as much as 18 per cent. In their natural state 

 parsnips, therefore, will be found much more nutritious than 

 carrots. 



4. The nutritive value of parsnips, in so far as it is dependent 

 on the proportion of flesh-forming constituents which are found 

 in the root, according to the above results appears to be greater 

 than that of carrots. Whilst fresh parsnips contain 1-30 per 

 cent., and dry 7*25 per cent, of flesh-forming constituents, Belgian 

 carrots were found to contain only 0*612 per cent, of protein com- 

 pounds in their natural state, and 5*46 per cent, in their dried 

 state. Compared with other crops parsnips are about as rich in 

 albuminous compounds as mangolds, and ought, therefore, to go 

 as far as mangolds in producing flesh. 



5. The proportion of ammoniacal salts which occurs in the 

 parsnip and in the carrots amounts to mere traces, which do not 

 render inaccurate the determination of the nutritive value of these 

 roots by the indirect m-ethod of combustion. Parsnips, richer in 

 protein compounds than carrots, also contain more nitrogen in the 

 form of ammoniacal salts. 



6. As compared with carrots parsnips contain a double pro- 

 portion of fatty matters. They ought, therefore, to be superior 

 as a fattening material in the feeding of stock. 



7. The differences in the relative proportions of cellular fibre 

 in both roots are very great. The cellular fibre occurring in 

 carrots, parsnips, turnips, mangolds, &c., 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 formation of fat. 



Thus, on the whole, parsnips appear to possess greater value 

 than white Belgian carrots as a feeding or fattening material. 

 Parsnips are indeed very valuable as an article of food ; they are 

 liked by cattle, and highly esteemed by Continental farmers for 

 fattening stock. Moreover, they stand the frost better than any 

 other root-crop, and keep well for a long time, as they contain 

 less water than almost any other root-crop usually cultivated in 

 England. On these grounds I would, therefore, strongly recom- 

 mend the field cultivation of parsnips. 



