Why till the soil before sowing?

Tilling 15 to 20 centimetres deep will stir the soil very well.

Do this work with the hoe or the plough.

Tilling loosens the soil; it gets air and water well into the soil.

Tilling enables you to mix the herbage with the soil. When the herbage rots, it makes humus.
When the herbage is too big, cut it, pile it up and burn it before tilling; and then you must spread the ashes all over the soil.

In a soil well loosened by tilling, the water penetrates well and stays for a long time.

Therefore, till at the beginning of the rainy season, so that the soil holds the water.

This first tilling is very important; do it just as soon as you can move the soil.

21. Tilling, or turning the soil over, can be done with the hoe, the spade or the digging fork.

But this is slow and tiring work.

Nowadays, people use a plough drawn by donkeys or oxen. The work is done better and more quickly.

The plough

Most often, people use a simple plough. The plough consists of a ploughshare, a mouldboard and two handles.