I grew up going to a museum that had a historical farm every weekend (17th-early 19th century) Spreading liquid cow poop on the field wasn't an option because they didn't have the machinery. So they needed to do animal/crop rotation to keep the costs down (ie not pay for animal food.)

When I wasn't there I was on my parent's allotment. Next to the allotment was a standard arable field. For various reasons It stopped being used and was left to nature.

Two things struck me: 1) it was about 80cm lower than the allotments

2) nothing grew on it. The strip of land that served as a border had to be mown _every week_ to keep it from exploding.

It had basically degraded to sand and stone.