Tillage is the
agricultural preparation of
soil by mechanical of various types, such as digging, stirring, and overturning. Examples of
human-powered tilling methods using
hand tools include
shovelling,
picking,
mattock work,
hoeing, and
raking. Examples of
draft-animal-powered or
mechanized work include
ploughing (overturning with moldboards or chiseling with chisel shanks),
rototilling, rolling with
cultipackers or other
rollers,
harrowing, and cultivating with
cultivator shanks (teeth). Small-scale gardening and farming, for household food production or
small business production, tends to use the smaller-scale methods above, whereas medium- to large-scale farming tends to use the larger-scale methods. There is a fluid continuum, however. Any type of gardening or farming, but especially larger-scale commercial types, may also use low-till or
no-till methods as well.