Frederick William III, king of Prussia, took a keen interest in the making of sugar from beets, and, after having convinced himself that Achard was on the right track, he bought the crown land at Cunern, Silesia, for exploitation on a large scale. He provided Achard with funds for the erection of the first real sugar factory built in Germany, at which operations were begun in 1802. The king also supplied money for the construction of other factories in Brandenburg, Silesia, and Pomerania, and lent his support to the growers of beets as well as to the manufacturers of sugar. Despite the reverses in war suffered by the Prussians, the progress in sugar making was so manifest that in 1810 it was clear that the industry was bound to succeed under intelligent management. [Illustration: DAN SWEENEY FRANZ CARL ACHARD] [Illustration: FIRST BEET-SUGAR FACTORY IN THE WORLD—BUILT AT CUNERN, SILESIA, 1802] Achard, who was of French extraction, had corresponded with a number of scientific men in France and through them reports of his work reached the French Institute. The verdict of this body was favorable and two sugar factories were built, one at St. Ouen and the other at Chelles. Both of these enterprises failed through lack of practical knowledge and the inferior quality of the beet-roots. Although this setback brought the manufacture of beet sugar to a standstill for a time, there is plenty of evidence to show that hope of ultimate success was never abandoned. The effect of the closing down of these two beet factories was to divert the attention of scientists to making sugar from grapes. Proust and Parmentier, both chemists of note, demonstrated that it could be obtained from this source and the French government issued instructions for the preparation of sugar and syrup from the vine. Parmentier published a bulletin advising against the attempt to make beet sugar in France as the soil of the country would not produce beet-roots containing sugar. In 1810 Napoleon ordered an appropriation of 200,000 francs to be divided as a premium among the factories recovering the highest percentage of sugar from grapes. Meanwhile the friends of the beet movement had not been idle, and early in March, 1811, the Society for the Encouragement of National Industry submitted to the emperor a report of what had been accomplished in the manipulation of beets, together with samples of the sugar obtained, and on the 25th of that month Napoleon issued the edict that established the manufacture of beet sugar in France. The decree provided that 79,000 acres of land in various parts of the empire should be devoted to the raising of beets and directed that all the acreage named should be under cultivation the first year, or at latest the second. It created six experimental stations for the instruction of the farmers and land owners in cultivation and also for the furtherance of the interests of the manufacturer.