in central america it has been a traditional practices for long time for farmer to plant an average of two dozen species of plants on plots no larger than one-tenth of hectare
such an intimate mixture of various plants, each with a different structure, intimated the layered configuration of mixed tropical forest
with a lower layer of bananas or citrus
a farmer would plant coconut or papaya with a lower layer of bananas or citrus, a shrub layer of coffee or cacao, annual of different stature such as maize, and finally a spreading ground cover such as squash
in clearing the forest for agricultural use, they deliberately spared certain trees which, by the end of the rice-growing seasons, provided a partial canopy of new foliage to prevent excessive exposure of the soil to the sun.