Chapter 35: Agriculture and the Empire_3

Xiulote pondered carefully, at the same time recalling past knowledge. In this process, corn grew tall, providing stalks for the climbing soybeans. Beans wound around the maize, fixing nitrogen to replenish soil fertility. And pumpkins spread across the spaces between corn and beans, clearing the field of weeds.

The three crops formed a perfect symbiotic relationship, requiring little human management, which suited the situation in Central America, where only rudimentary stone tools were available.

Now it was late April; corn needed five months to mature and would be harvested around October, while beans planted later took about four months to mature, with a harvest around September. Early-maturing pumpkins only required a little over three months and would be harvested from August to September. Following the corn harvest at the beginning of October, they would decide whether to plant another round of beans at the end of the year, not for yield but to supplement soil fertility.