Abstract: In order to solve the problems of low quality of well cellars and poor machine adaptability in the current well cellar transplanting aided by film mulching in hilly tobacco-growing areas, an intermittent-operation cellar maker was designed and tested. Adams software was used for kinematics simulation to obtain the motion trajectory of the hole former. Based on the agronomic requirements, the key components of the cellar maker including the hole former and the elevating mechanism were designed and analyzed. A continuous-operation cellar maker in hilly tobacco-growing areas was selected for transplanting comparative test, and the maker performance was evaluated by measuring indicators such as well cellar quality, hole spacing uniformity, longitudinal film tear opening size and row straightness deviation. The results showed that compared with the continuous-operation cellar maker, the qualified rates of cellar diameter and cellar depth of the intermittent-operation cellar maker were 2.5 and 4.2 percentage points higher, respectively. The variance of cellar uprightness was 1.33 lower than that of the continuous-operation cellar maker, indicating improved hole forming quality. The coefficient of variation of hole spacing and the longitudinal film tear opening size of the intermittent-operation cellar maker were 1.03 percentage points and 4.7 mm lower than those of the continuous-operation cellar maker, respectively, indicating that the hole spacing uniformity of the intermittent-operation cellar maker was satisfactory and the degree of damage to the mulching film was small. The difference in the row straightness deviation between the two types of makers was small. Therefore, this intermittent-operation cellar maker can meet the agronomic requirements for well cellar production in hilly tobacco-growing areas.