The Farmers

NTS-023 Milpa Agriculture ©2007

The Native American farming system depended on natural mimicry. In Central America the method of agriculture is called the "milpa system". Plants, which produce a beneficial food source for people, are planted together because they aid each other as well. Corn appears to have arrived in Florida just a few hundred years before the Europeans.

An example of symbiotic plants that might form a milpa are -

1. Corn takes nitrogen out of the soil.

2. Beans put nitrogen back into the soil. By planting the two crops together, the soil stays healthy.

3. Toss in some squash. Its flowers attract insects away from the corn.

These plants are called "The Three Sisters" by Native Americans.

For more information on milpa agriculture read: Understanding the Power of Plants