cultivator
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: cultivators
Etymology: From cultivate + -or, partly after French cultivateur.
Senses: examples: text: Near-synonyms: scarifier, scuffler (not always precisely differentiated; dialectal usage has varied)
text: As the crop gets bigger, the shank spacing on the cultivator will need to be adjusted accordingly.
text: The Cultivator, or Horse Hoe.—This is an instrument not as much known and used as it deserves and ought to be. It is adapted for operations between the plough and harrow, and at certain times is much better than either. It is half a plough, half harrow, and half hoe, and does all these operations conjointly. […] Now this is the time to use the cultivator. It ought, after a few days, to follow the harrow, and is much more useful than the plough, as well as a great saving of labour. It cuts as deep and pulverizes the soil as well. It tears up and brings to the surface the roots of grass which the plough only covers, and by adapting the width of the cultivator to the space between the rows of corn, it half hoes the corn at the same time, and does the whole work most admirably. When there is much grass growing with the corn, it is an extremely useful instrument, as it pulls it up by the roots and in a great measure destroys it. For the Fiorin or Quack roots, with which our soil too much abounds, it will be of great service, and it appears to me it will be the most effectual remedy for it of any instrument we have yet tried. Corn is much sooner dressed with the hand-hoe, by the half ploughing, half hoeing operation of the cultivator. The cultivator is likewise very useful for the raising of potatoes, and for stirring the ground between the rows of turnips; and where a clover lay has been turned over to put down to wheat, when the plough cannot be again resorted to for fear of disturbing the sod, this instrument may be used for a shallow ploughing, which it will do much better than can by any other mode be effected. Corn is now raised with much less labour than formerly. It was the custom to hand-hoe a crop two, and often three times, and this was always an expensive and tedious process. Hoeing is now often omitted entirely, and is seldom done more than once; and still there are heavier crops of corn raised now than formerly. […] -Dr. Beekman.
ref: 1841, Jesse Buel, The Farmers' Instructor. Consisting of Essays, Practical Directions, and Hints for the Management of the Farm and the Garden. Originally Published in the Cultivator; Selected and Revised for the School District Library, volume 1, Harper and Brothers, pages 244-246:
synonyms: grubber
hypernyms: implement#Noun
glosses: Any of several devices used to loosen or stir the soil, either to remove weeds or to provide aeration and drainage.
examples: text: The cultivators were out among the row crops, keeping the weeds in check.
glosses: A person who cultivates.
Someone who uses a cultivator (implement, device, or machine).
examples: text: Near-synonyms: grower, planter, farmer
text: She was a devoted cultivator of roses and orchids.
text: Consider now the cultivators’ perspective. The dilemma facing them is presented statistically in Table III.1 which shows the relationship between the rural population and land use in Bastar from 1931 to 1991. During this period the population trebled while the area under cultivation increased by only 80%. The period from 1931 to 1951 was a period of relative land surplus. As the population increased, the forest land was encroached upon. The period from 1951, by way of contrast, was one of relative land scarcity. Encroachable forest land became scarcer and the farm holdings per household became smaller as more people were forced to live on the same area of land.
ref: 2005, C. A. Gregory, “Chapter III: Land as the supreme good”, in Savage Money: The Anthropology and Politics of Commodity Exchange, Taylor and Francis, →ISBN, page 95:
glosses: A person who cultivates.
Someone who grows plants.
examples: text: She was a wonderful cultivator of potential in her direct reports.
glosses: A person who cultivates.
Someone who fosters something besides plants (such as human development or relationships).
Derived terms: cultipacker
cultivatorship
Related terms: cultivation