An agricultural practice where vegetation is burned off a piece of land to clear it for planting or to improve soil quality.
From 'burn' (Old English 'biernan') + 'beat' (Old English 'bēatan,' meaning a tract of land or territory). The compound emerged as agricultural terminology in early modern English.
Burnbeat farming is ancient—archaeologists believe it shaped entire ecosystems and may have created the grasslands of Africa, Australia, and North America by preventing forest regrowth!
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