Progressive Agriculture 



CHAPTER I 

 A FEW OPENING SUGGESTIONS 



What is tillage of the soil? 



Writers have been answering the question for 

 a century and they have not told it all. That 

 part of Agriculture which deals with soil tillage is, 

 and ever will be an unfinished science, because 

 we shall go on learning more and more about it 

 and never quite reach the end. 



Tillage, in its broad sense, means all handling 

 or treatment of the soil incident to crop growing, 

 plowing, packing, disking, harrowing and culti- 

 vating. 



Under this broad term comes any mechanical 

 work or process that is applied to change the 

 physical condition of the soil, to prepare the seed 

 bed, to assist the growing plant and to keep the 

 field free of weeds. 



Not all farmers, or those interested in farming, 

 or persons who have made some study of agri- 

 culture, agree as to the relative importance of 

 tillage as compared with other phases of farm 

 work. Some place the emphasis at one place and 

 some at another. There are those who insist that 

 success in farming is wrapped up in animal 

 husbandry and others who make a fad of crop 

 varieties and of seed selection and seed testing. 

 Then there are those who have asserted that til- 

 lage is nothing as compared to climatic conditions, 

 or in other words, that every farmer everywhere 



