Cotton

Many months ago, I noted that Gavin Wright pointed out that cotton was not particularly destructive of the soil. Lacy Ford squares the circle:

The cotton plant itself was not naturally destructive of the soil, but the type of cultivation practiced by most growers, especially the habit of shallow soil preparation and their indifference to proper drainage, led to rapid erosion and soil exhaustion.

Having grown up in New York City, I'm not exactly a farmer. Does this make sense? I would have assumed that insufficient fertilizer or failure to rotate and rest fields was the primary culprit.