Roller (agricultural tool)
The roller is an agricultural tool used for flattening land or breaking up large clumps of soil, especially after ploughing or disc harrowing. Typically, rollers are pulled by tractors or, prior to mechanisation, a team of animals such as horses or oxen. As well as for agricultural purposes, rollers are used on cricket pitches and residential lawn areas.
A roller in a typical power farming application
A 12-foot smooth roller comprising eight 1.5-foot segments
A ridged roller comprising many segments is usually called a Cambridge roller in the United Kingdom and a cultipacker in the United States; each name originated with a manufacturer in the respective country and evolved into the regionally prevalent name for the type.
A field after rolling with a Cambridge (or similar) roller
Tillage is the agricultural preparation of soil by mechanical agitation of various types, such as digging, stirring, and overturning. Examples of human-powered tilling methods using hand tools include shoveling, picking, mattock work, hoeing, and raking. Examples of draft-animal-powered or mechanized work include ploughing, rototilling, rolling with cultipackers or other rollers, harrowing, and cultivating with cultivator shanks (teeth).
Tillage after corn harvest (Click for video)
Rice tillage. Valencian Museum of Ethnology.
A Kenyan farmer holding tilled soil
Tilling with Hungarian Grey cattle
