Under the Homestead Act, a homesteader was required to improve a parcel of land by:

The Homestead Act required a claimant to live on the land and make improvements to it, including building a home and cultivating or otherwise improving the parcel. Starting a business, building livestock facilities, or creating road access were not the general requirement. The correct choice is “building a house and bettering the land.”

AI-written and checked against the verified answer.