Plowing a field exposes the soil to erosion. Bare earth is rare in nature at elevations below
timberline.
Think about the grasslands and forests you may have walked in your
life. How much bare soil do you see? Not much, if any. Outside of arid
environments, plants typically blanket the ground surface, their leaves
intercepting rainfall and their roots binding the soil. Now think about
the brown color of the water running off a freshly plowed field or the
exposed soil of a construction site during a sudden downpour. Leaving
the soil bare for some part of the year makes it vulnerable to erosion,
whether by wind or rain, resulting in a rate of soil loss tens to
hundreds of times faster than nature makes it.
The above is quoted from the book,
Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations, a book that traces the fall of almost every civilization to its root cause: Soil erosion.
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