84 POSSIBLE DEVELOPMENTS 



and extraction of drugs, the conversion of certain 

 crops into industrial alcohol, the preparation of 

 starch. 



In several of these directions the Development Com- 

 missioners have already instituted experiments upon a 

 small commercial scale, but neither that body nor the 

 Board of Agriculture possess sufficient powers to go to 

 work with the directness and on the scale that is re- 

 quired for the inauguration of a new industry. Neither 

 body can participate in or initiate industrial ventures 

 in the way that is possible to the Agricultural Depart- 

 ments of our Dominions and other countries. There 

 are many minor rural industries which are entirely 

 neglected in the United Kingdom, small perhaps in 

 themselves, but which if successful would go far towards 

 increasing the prosperity of the rural population and at 

 the same time add to the stability of our agriculture by 

 extending the variety of its output. 



