eliot's sentence

"It is incumbent upon the grower to provide a smooth seedbed without hummocks or hollows if the best results are to be obtained." p.121 The New Organic Grower.

This seems to be the crux of the probem of no-tilling small farming. How do you run a seeder across a bed if the bed is covered with plant debris? Do you invent a special seeder with huge tires? Do you pull back the carpet of debris do a little bit of tilthing and then seed? How do you pull back 25-100 feet of debris? With a rake?