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Cultivation to the time when one is old (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

tillage

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'cultivation' is the definition.
(I know that cultivation can be written as tillage)

'to the time when one is old' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'to' could be 'til' (I've seen this in another clue) and 'til' is found in the answer.
'time' could be 'age' (an age is a period of time) and 'age' is present in the answer.
A single letter 'l' remains which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for tillage that I've seen before include "Working of the soil" , "Farmers work at it" , "Arable land worked by ploughing" , "Farmers undertake it" , "Cultivation of the land" .)

I've seen this clue in The Irish Independent.
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