colo, -ere, -ui, cultus, to till, tend, take care of, inhabit, care for

Aeneid, 1.15-16: quam Iuno fertur terris magis omnibus unam / posthabita coluisse Samo (Carthage ... which alone Juno is said to have cherished more than all the lands, with even Samos regarded as inferior). cf. colonus, a tiller of soil, a farmer. Eng. cultivate, to improve and prepare land for crops, to till. Willa Cather, One of Ours - Book One: On Lovely Creek, ch. 12: BETWEEN haying and harvest that summer Ralph and Mr. Wheeler drove to Denver in the big car, leaving Claude and Dan to cultivate the corn. When they returned Mr. Wheeler announced that he had a secret. After several days of reticence, during which he shut himself up in the sitting-room writing letters, and passed mysterious words and winks with Ralph at table, he disclosed a project which swept away all Claude’s plans and purposes.