Still, when you consider that the soil in the Maya region is naturally poor for farming, the slash and burn method actually was and still is a sound technology. In fact, slash and burn is perfectly acceptable when there is and abundance of land, but if the population is getting too large to be supported by the land, then leaving large areas fallow for many years would be impossible. The alternative - trying to farm depleted soil would result in famine. Some archaeologists believe that this was a factor in the collapse of the Classic Maya civilization. Perhaps not, because there is also evidence of some very innovative alternative farming techniques, such as using terracing along mountainsides and building up raised planting beds in marshy areas.
Corn takes nitrogen from the soil and beans replace it, so they are a good combination.
Corn needs to be planted in rows in order to cross pollinate and the beans need to climb a trellis so they are trained to grow up the corn stalks. Since the young bean plants need a cooler temperature, the corn provides some shade. When the corn is ripe, Maya farmers bend the ears over so that they dry out in the sun on the stalk and in this way they can be stored and preserved for the months between harvests. Maize kernels are ground by the women. Traditionally this was done between a stone pallet and a long grinding stone, but today women usually bring their corn to be ground by machine.