[a. F. cultivation (16th c.), n. of action from cultiver: see CULTIVE v. and -ATION.]
1. The tilling of land; tillage, husbandry.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 278. Soil … capable of cultivations and improvements.
1746–7. Hervey, Medit. (1758), I. 145. By Industry and Cultivation, this neat Spot is an image of Eden.
1857. Ruskin, Pol. Econ. Art, 17. Precisely the same laws of economy which apply to the cultivation of a farm or an estate apply to the cultivation of a province or of an island.
1868. Dilke, Greater Brit., II. 116. The amount of land under cultivation has been trebled in the last seven years.
† b. Improvement (of land); increase of fertility. Obs. rare.
1793. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 206. The first shower of rain would turn it all to stone, without affording any sensible cultivation to the land.
2. The bestowing of labor and care upon a plant, so as to develop and improve its qualities; the raising of (a crop) by tillage.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, I. vii. I saw several Sugar Canes, but wild, and for want of Cultivation, imperfect.
1813. Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem. (1814), 257. The seeds of plants exalted by cultivation always furnish large and improved varieties.
1871. R. W. Dale, Commandm., ix. 231. You cannot change a rose into a pear tree by cultivation.
Mod. Land devoted to the cultivation of wheat.
b. transf. The production or raising of a ‘crop’ of any kind (as of oysters, microscopic organisms, etc.); also concr. the product of such cultivation (of bacteria, etc.); = CULTURE sb. 3 b, c. Also attrib. and Comb., as cultivation experiment, fluid.
1884. E. Klein, Micro-Organisms & Disease (1886), 159. Twenty days’ cultivation of blood-bacilli at 42° to 43° C. does not always yield attenuated virus. Ibid., 26. Test-tubes which are to receive cultivation-fluids.
1886. E. M. Crookshank, Pract. Bacteriology, 69. In a glass beaker … place the tube containing the cultivation.
3. fig. The devoting of special attention or study to the development of, or to progress in (a branch of knowledge, a person’s acquaintance, etc.).
1697. Dryden, Virgil, Ded. (J.). A cultivation of Learning.
1780. Harris, Philol. Enq., Wks. (1841), 463. The cultivation of every liberal accomplishment.
1877. Tyndall, in Daily News, 2 Oct., 2/4. The cultivation of right relations with his fellow men.
b. The bestowing of special attention upon a person for the sake of gaining his favor. rare.
1793. T. Taylor, Sallust, xiv. 70. [The gods] become angry with the guilty, but are rendered propitious by proper cultivation.
4. The developing, fostering or improving (of the mind, faculties, etc.) by education and training; the condition of being cultivated; culture, refinement.
a. 1716. South, Serm., VI. xi. (R.). Use and cultivation of reason.
1826. Disraeli, Viv. Grey, II. i. An enthusiastic advocate for the cultivation of the mind, he was an equally ardent supporter of the cultivation of the body.
1869. Lecky, Europ. Mor., I. i. 88. Increased cultivation almost always produces … fastidiousness.
