Cultivation can remove weeds between the ridges, improve the nutritional conditions of tobacco, and increase the ability of lodging resistance and yield of tobacco during the growth in field. In order to improve the quality and efficiency of field management and cultivation and hilling during tobacco’s middle tillage, a tobacco hilling machine for compound cutting was designed. Based on the prototype, key parts were analyzed and designed, and the principle of compound cutting was clarified. The structure and operation parameters of adjustment device of ridge distance, ridge shape angle, ridge bottom width and hydraulic transmission system were determined. The oblique cutting of the plough and the milling of the spiral earth cutter were analyzed, and the positive milling and reverse milling of the spiral earth cutter were tested. The results showed that the working effect of the spiral earth cutter was better in the reverse milling. At the same time, the operation process of hilling of assembling for compound cutting was analyzed, and the necessary work conditions to make sure that the minimum speed and geometric parameter of spiral soil knife were obtained by analysis and calculation. For the relevant work performance test of prototype, the field experimental results showed that under the condition of operation speed of 2.5 ~ 3.2km/h, the soilbreaking rate was 90%, the qualification rate of hilling thickness was 95%, the qualification rate of ridge shape angle was 93%, the hilling of height was 400mm, the width of furrow was 750mm. The test results met the design and practical requirements. The research conclusion had great theoretical value and practical significance to the design of machine which worked for tobacco hilling.