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OCR: Shifting cultivation The kind of agriculture practiced by the Bomagai-Angoiang is best described as shifting cultivation but is also known as swidden cultivation or slash-and-burn agriculture. Many anthropologists believe that shifting cultivation is one of the earliest kinds of agriculture developed in the humid tropics, where it is still very common in regions with small populations and extensive forests. To carry out shifting cultivation, men cleared a plot in the forest by felling many of the trees and burning at least some of the debris. Then the men or the women or both together planted a variety of crops (often as many as 30 or more species of crop plants) in the cleared forest soil. After a year or two of using the plot, the gardeners allowed it to be taken over by weeds and the seedlings of forest trees, which gradually grew to dominate the lower weeds until the plot was again covered by young forest. After a number of years-it could be 10 or 20 or more-the plot was cleared again for gardening. By that time, all the weeds had been suppressed and the soil under the forest had regained fertility and would again produce good crops.