The homestead act and grants of land to
railroads were used to
(1) raise money to finance the federal government
(2) limit the influence of monopolies and trusts
(3) support the development of state universities
(4) encourage settlement of the west

The Homestead Act and grants of land to railroads were used to (4) encourage settlement of the West. This was used because northerners wanted land to be owned in the western part of the United States. They wanted this through means that were different than southerners, where southerners had plantations run due to slave labor, and the farmers who owned land in the west were European immigrants who had moved across the United States to the west.