The Romans and Greeks used to till salt into the land of their enemies so that it wouldn't produce any crops. Does this really work? Why does it work?
by 
Cyndi Ninja
ANSWERS: 3
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Yes, it does work. If memory serves, the advancing Union soldiers did it to the fields in the South during the American Civil War, as well. It works due to osmosis -- water will tend to diffuse from areas of higher concentration to areas of lower concentration. Since there's more salt out in the dirt than there is inside the plants, the water gets leached out of the plants and the crops die.
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It did work. The salt dried the crops up, leaving them with no water. The crops would die off, and their supply of food would be gone. This was an efficient tactic.
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When the earth has too much salt in it (either from natural reasons or from deliberate salting it causes detrimental effects on plant growth and final yields because the plants can't absorb water properly. It damages things like roads, bricks, pipes. it ruins the water quality for people in the area, for the animals too. And soil erosion ultimately, when crops are too strongly affected by the amounts of salts. It poisons the land, usually for centuries.
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