|
| |Protein| | extract |Fiber|Ash
| % | % | % | % | % |%
---------------------|-----|-------|---|--------------|-----|---
Outer, or true skin | 80.1| 2.7 |0.8| 14.|6 |1.8
Inner skin, or | | | | | |
fibro-vascular | | | | | |
layer | 83.2| 2.3 |0.1| 12.6 | 0.7 |1.1
Flesh | 81.1| 2.0 |0.1| 15.7 | 0.3 |0.8
Average of 86 | | | | | |
American analyses[B]| 78.0| 2.2 |0.1| 18.|8 |0.9
Average of 118 | | | | | |
European analyses[C]| 75.0| 2.1 |0.1| 21.0 | 0.7 |1.1
================================================================

[Footnote A: Including a small amount of flesh.]

[Footnote B: From an unpublished compilation of analyses of American
food products.]

[Footnote C: Koenig, "Chemie der Nahrungs-und Genussmittel," 3d ed., II,
p. 626.]

36. Sweet Potatoes contain more dry matter than white potatoes, the
difference being due mainly to the presence of about 6 per cent of
sugar. There is approximately the same starch content, but more fat,
protein, and fiber. As a food, they supply a large amount of
non-nitrogenous nutrients.

37. Carrots contain about half as much dry matter as potatoes, and
half of the dry matter is sugar, nearly equally divided between sucrose
and levulose, or fruit sugar. Like the potato, carrots have some organic
acids and a relatively small amount of proteids. In carrots and milk
there is practically the same per cent of water. The nutrients in each,
however, differ both as to kind and proportion. Experiments with the
cooking of carrots show that if a large amount of water is used, 30 per
cent or more of the nutrients, particularly of the more soluble sugar
and albumin, are extracted and lost in the drain waters.[12] The color
of the carrot is due to the non-nitrogenous compound carrotin,
C_{26}H_{38}. Carrots are valuable in a ration not because of the
nutrients they supply, but for the palatability and the mechanical
action which the vegetable fiber exerts upon the process of digestion.

38. Parsnips contain more solid matter than beets or carrots, of which
3 to 4 per cent is starch. The starch grains are very small, being only
about one twentieth the size of the