The analyses show that the dry bean is much richer in protein than the cereals.
Beets.
—All the varieties of edible beets belong to the common species Beta vulgaris L. French, betterave; German, Salat-Rübe; Dutch, Betwortel; Italian, barbabietola; Spanish, remolacha.
The most important of these beets, economically, is the variety which has been cultivated for the purpose of producing sugar. By long years of selection and improvement the sugar content of the natural beet, which is not more than from four to six percent, has been brought up to an average of about 14 percent, often reaching much larger quantities. The sugar beet itself, in its earlier stages, makes an excellent vegetable for the table, being particularly sweet and palatable. Its tannin content, however, is very high, and before cooking, especially, it has quite a bitter taste, at times. This disappears in the young beets when they are cooked. The sugar beet has a perfectly white flesh, inasmuch as the attempt was made in the early period of cultivation to develop a beet without color in order to produce a white sugar with as little trouble as possible. On the other hand the garden beet is usually highly colored, the red beet being especially prized. The number of varieties of beets in cultivation is very great. Among the most important may be mentioned the long blood-red beet, which is the common garden beet, the rough-skinned red beet, the pear-shaped beet, the turnip-shaped beet, all of which are of the red color. There is also cultivated for eating purposes a beet with yellow flesh, though it is not by any means so common as the red garden beet.
Composition of the Beet.
—The following data represents the average composition of the red beet used as a vegetable:
| Water | 88.47 | percent |
| Ash, | 1.04 | „ |
| Protein, | 1.53 | „ |
| Fiber, | .88 | „ |
| Sugar, starch, etc., | 7.94 | „ |
| Fat, | .14 | „ |
The above data show that the average garden beet has a little less than 12 percent of solid matter and a little more than 88 percent of water. It is rather poor in protein, though it is not a vegetable which can be classed as being excessively deficient in nitrogenous constituents. Its chief food value, however, is in the sugar which it contains, which is more than 7 percent. It is quite deficient in fat.
Brussels Sprouts.
—Brussels sprouts is a variety of cabbage which is grown over large areas in different countries and has a deservedly high reputation on the table. The French name is chou de Bruxelles; German, Brüsseler Sprossen-Kohl; Italian, cavolo a germoglio; Spanish, bretones de Bruselas. The composition of Brussels sprouts is practically the same as that of cabbage.