If you were flying across the western united states and saw the landscape was divided by roads and fields that ran precisely east-west and north-south in regular squares and rectangles you might logically assume that this part of the country had been surveyed using what system

Township and Range

The township and range system began its usage after the passage of the Northwest Ordinance in the Articles of Confederation. The geographical system divides land into townships with 36 1-square mile plots within each township. The townships are measured against a east-west and north-south range lines. This system created square divisions of land compared to the metes and bound system that used landmarks to create boarders.

i do believe its (d) it allowed the government to offer pioneers sixty acres of western land if they lived on it and made improvements to it.

explanation: signed into law in may 1862, the homestead act opened up settlement in the western united states, allowing any american, including freed slaves, to put in a claim for up to 160 free acres of federal land. by the end of the civil war, 15,000 homestead claims had been established, and more followed in the postwar years