be raised. In the south, the three-stage system used in northern France replaced the two-stage system, with fodder crops substituted for fallow. More livestock provided more income for farmers and more manure. In the Paris basin, the introduction of the sugar beet after 1850 drastically increased the productivity of the land; the turnover of a hectare of land in this region rose from 150 to 200 francs in 1840 to 400 francs in 1880. Better equipment was also introduced, with the horse plow replacing the swing plow and the scythe replacing the sickle. In areas like the Paris basin with large-scale farming operations, capital-intensive tedding machines, reapers, threshers, and mowing machines were introduced between 1873 and 1882. Investment in agriculture, previously a sector of the economy starved for capital, also rose. This was in part due to the migration of peasants to the towns, motivating employers to introduce improved tools and harvesting machinery to offset the tightening labor market. The damaging economic effects of poor harvests were also eliminated in the 1850s, as prices were stabilized. This was due substantially to the development of the railways, which provided fast, cheap, and bulk transport for grain and other foodstuffs which helped ensure demand was met across the country. This was first demonstrated after the harvest failure of 1846, when the Paris-Orléans line distributed food quickly to the areas it reached, shielding those areas from the catastrophic effects of the harvest failure suffered in other parts of the country. By the 1850s the railways had developed to such an extent that they were able to minimize the effects of the poor harvests in 1853 and 1855 throughout the country. Grain could be transported from regions with surplus harvest to those with shortages, or imported from abroad. Merchants were encouraged to expand their markets by the cheapness of rail transport. A sliding scale of tariffs on grain imports discouraged merchants from importing sufficient quantities of grain, since they could be subject to higher tariffs if prices decreased at home. This came to an end when the tariffs were repealed in 1860, not to be reintroduced until 1885. Imports jumped from 3 to 5 million hectoliters in 1846 following the poor harvest, and the next year stood at 10 million. In 1855, 10 million hectoliters were imported, but because the railway network was not yet mature and because of the discouraging effect of the