Under the background of global climate change,the drought disaster in rain-fed district becomes more serious,which restricts the local maize′s production.The rich land resource fails to give full exertion, so water saving irrigation technology is well developed in the Northeast China these years.For the sprinkler′s development and its demand for matching tillage and agronomic management in the rain-fed district of Northeast China,with maize as the research object,a field experiment with four tillage(no tillage,subsoiling-tillage, scale-like pit tillage,subsoiling plus scale-like pit tillage)was conducted to investigate the tillage effects on soil characteristic and maize growth in 2014 and 2015.The main results show as follows:three different tillage patterns can improve the soil structure by reducing the bulk density and improving the soil porosity and infiltration rate of the surface soil(040 cm);Though the difference of yield between the subsoiling tillage and the subsoiling plus scale-like pit tillage are not significant,the subsoiling tillage and subsoiling plus scale-like pit tillage can improve the height,stem diameter,100 seed weight,corn ear dry weight and the dry matter accumulation rate in the stage of maize growth,which is beneficial to increase the yield;Compared with the conventional no tillage,the two tillage treatment can increase the yield of maize significantly.