You can't do it. Salts go into solution and solutions leech out. You might have better luck raising the ph above 8.5 so nothing grows. Soil has a buffering index precisely because certain compounds don't dissolve until met with acid, at which point they neutralize the acid. Old sea shells in Florida soil are notorious for this. You basically can't lower pH in some areas. So maybe look into that approach. I'm not a chemist so I can't help you. But that's the approach I'd research.
I'm not planning to destroy any cropland myself. My interest is in whether the phrase derived from historical usage or, if the answer exceeded what would have been practical for an army to tow into enemy lands, the etymology was merely hypothetical.
No way an enemy could do that. Even carrying standard amounts of modern granular fertilizer would be a burden for an attacking army. My guess is it was used as punishment, and they'd probably only do it around the guy's house and garden. They'd take his actual crop fields for production.
Fooding with salt water could sure do it.
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