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This paper deals with certain phases of a study which is part of a national co-operative project on the " Conservation of the Nutritive Value of Foods." The purpose of the investigation was threefold: (1) to learn the relative nutritive values of some horticultural varieties of Beta vulgaris which seemed to offer possibilities of increased utilization as human food;(2) to determine their relative palatabilities; and (3) t o investigate the effect of cooking, marketing, and drying on the ascorbic acid content, color, and palatability of the selected greens.Much has been published on the ascorbic acid content of vegetables and the effect of processing on it but little has been done with leaves of the Beta adgaris family. Fenton, Tressler, Camp, and King (1937) found the total ascorbic acid content of fresh raw Fordhook chard t o be 3.6 mg. per gram (dry weight) by the dye-titration method. Sheets, Leonard, and Gieger (1941) and Fenton et al. (1937) collected data which showed that the leaf portion of raw fresh Swiss chard was a good source of vitamin C, while the stem was a poor source. Sheets et al. (1941) found that the leaf blade contained 86.6 per cent of the ascorbic acid of the entire leaf.The ascorbic acid content of cooked Swiss chard was found by Fenton et aZ. (1937) to be 0.14 to 0.18 mg. per gram with about one-half of the original ascorbic acid passing into the cooking water. Fenton (1940), in reviewing the published data, stated that the amount in cooking water varied from 20 t o 66 per cent. McIntosh, Tressler, and Fenton (1940) found that quick-frozen vegetables lost increasing amounts of vitamin C to the cooking water as the volume of the water was increased. Fenton et Ccl. (1938) working with carrots had similar results. Most of the actual destruction of ascorbic acid occurred during first two minutes of cooking. Nagel and Harris (1943) found that high losses of ascorbic acid occurred when vegetables were cooked and served under restaurant conditions. Their data indicated that about 20 per cent of the original ascorbic acid content was destroyed by cooking, 25 per cent more was lost in the discarded cooking water, and an additional 25 per cent was lost during approximately three hours on the steam table. I n spinach, the total loss was 93 per cent.Tressler (1942) stated that most leafy vegetables lost their vitamin C content during dehydration. Moyer (1943) reported that beets lost 30 per 'Approved by the director of the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station for

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