Du Bois wrote numerous books, and it is this enormous literary output on such a wide variety of themes which offers the most convincing testimony to Du Bois's lifetime position that it was vital for blacks to cultivate their own aesthetic and cultural values even as they made valuable strides toward social emancipation. In this he was opposed by Booker T. Washington, who felt that the black should concentrate on developing technical and mechanical skills before all else. What is the BEST meaning for the word cultivate as used in paragraph 3? to produce by culture
to prepare and raise crops
to improve oneself personally
to seek the acquaintance or friendship of a person