Cultivation (klt-vshn), n.
Etymology: [Cf. F. cultivation.]
1. The art or act of cultivating; improvement for agricultural purposes or by agricultural processes; tillage; production by tillage.
2. Bestowal of time or attention for self-improvement or for the benefit of others; fostering care.
3. The state of being cultivated; advancement in physical, intellectual, or moral condition; refinement; culture. Italy . . . was but imperfectly reduced to cultivation before the irruption of the barbarians. Hallam.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for cultivation; he lists it under agriculture, education, refinement.
Where he writes about it:
Farming refers to the cultivation of considerable portions of land, and the raising of the coarser crops; gardening is the close cultivation of a small area for small fruits, flowers, vegetables, etc., and while it may be done upon a farm is yet a distinct industry. — from agriculture
Gardening in general, kitchen-gardening, the cultivation of vegetables, etc., for the household, market-gardening, the raising of the same for sale, floriculture, the culture of flowers, and horticulture, the culture of fruits, flowers, or vegetables, are all departments of agriculture, but not strictly nor ordinarily of farming; farming is itself one department of agriculture. — from agriculture
Tillage refers directly to the work bestowed upon the land, as plowing, manuring, etc.; cultivation refers especially to the processes that bring forward the crop; we speak of the tillage of the soil, the cultivation of corn; we also speak of land as in a state of cultivation, under cultivation, etc. — from agriculture
Culture is now applied to the careful development of any product to a state of perfection, especially by care through successive generations; the choice varieties of the strawberry have been produced by wise and patient culture; a good crop in any year is the result of good cultivation. — from agriculture
Cultivation, denoting primarily the process of cultivating the soil or growing crops, then the improved condition of either which is the result, is applied in similar sense to the human mind and character, but in this usage is now largely superseded by the term culture, which denotes a high development of the best qualities of man's mental and spiritual nature, with especial reference to the esthetic faculties and to graces of speech and manner, regarded as the expression of a refined nature. — from refinement
Culture in the fullest sense denotes that degree of refinement and development which results from continued cultivation through successive generations; a man's faculties may be brought to a high degree of cultivation in some specialty, while he himself remains uncultured even to the extent of coarseness and rudeness. — from refinement