Tillage

Tillage - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

TILL'AGE, n. The operation, practice or art of preparing land for seed, and keeping the ground free from weeds which might impede the growth of crops. Tillage includes manuring, plowing, harrowing and rolling land, or whatever is done to bring it to a proper state to receive the seed, and the operations of plowing, harrowing and hoeing the ground, to destroy weeds and loosen the soil after it is planted; culture; a principal branch of agriculture. Tillage of the earth is the principal as it was the first occupation of man, and no employment is more honorable.