In 1961, British scientists stopped farming a 4-hectare barley field and left it alone; 60 years later, it had turned itself into a complex native woodland
The four-hectare barley field was abandoned in 1961 after researchers harvested its final crop, allowing nature to take over without further human intervention. In 1961, researchers at Monks Wood in Cambridgeshire harvested a final crop of barley from a four-hectare agricultural plot known as Stocking Close, ploughed the soil and walked away. They did not…
