SUGAR BEET AND POTATOES 129 



which makes a profit. It does not matter whether 

 the company returns its profits to the Treasury or 

 applies them to public purposes ; the company must 

 not make a profit. Hence all experimental commercial 

 undertakings, where the attempt to make profits is 

 the very essence of the experiment, are excluded. 

 The result is that the Development Commission are 

 powerless. They cannot even guarantee the investors 

 against an ascertained and strictly limited portion 

 of the possible loss. It may be thought that the 

 narrow objections which hinder, if they do not pre- 

 vent, the establishment of an industry of such great 

 potential value in this country push the principles of 

 Free Trade to the verge of pedantry." ^ 



77. We also suggest that the Government should 

 turn its attention forthwith to the development of 

 our potato industry. The prospects in the United 

 Kingdom in this respect are highly favourable. In 

 the first place, the potato is grown everywhere through- 

 out the kingdom, and our average yield per acre com- 

 pared with the yield of other nations shows that in 

 this crop we still hold the premier position. But the 

 store of knowledge accumulated in this country on 

 the subject of potato breeding and growing would 

 raise even this satisfactory yield considerably if the 

 growers could rely upon a profitable market. At 

 present the limit to our annual productions is set by 

 the market for table potatoes. The present moment 

 is a good opportunity for creating additional profitable 

 markets, by estabUshing potato-drying plants and 

 factories for the industrial use of potatoes for starch 

 and alcohol. 



1 The Times, April 25th, 1916, 



