CHAPTER III. 
SOIL TILLAGE. 
T ILLAGE is the working or stirring of the land in 
order to improve it for agricultural purposes. The 
term cultivation is sometimes used but tillage is a techni¬ 
cal term and is to be preferred. The fundamental practice 
in farming is tilling the land. 
The modern ideas of tillage dates from 1733, when 
Jethro Tull published a book on Horse-Hoeing Husbandry. 
While his theory was not correct as to the manner that 
plants take food, he was the first in England to advocate 
tilling the soil. His idea was that particles were made so 
fine that the small roots could take them in as food. It 
was only in the latter part of the century just closed that 
the real reasons for tillage became popularly understood 
in this country. 
THE OBJECTS OF TILLAGE. 
Tillage improves the land in many ways. It pul¬ 
verizes the soil, allowing air to enter and make available 
the plant food. It gives the roots a wider pasture. It 
saves moisture. It is practiced to prevent the growth of 
weeds and other vegetation not desired upon the ground. 
To place beneath the surface, manure, stubble and other 
organic matter where it will not be in the way, and where 
it may be converted rapidly into humus. Tillage will 
develop various degrees of openness of texture and uni¬ 
formity of soil and conditions suitable to the planting of 
seeds and the setting of plants. 
The first requirements in the growing of plants is pro¬ 
per and thorough tillage. It is more important than the ap¬ 
plication of fertilizers. By thorough and careful tillage 
good crops can be raised on semi-arid regions of the west 
which have a rainfall of only a little more than one-third 
our average rainfall. 
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