Rather than treat the western territories as colonies, the United States steadily integrated them into the union as new states admitted as the equals of the original states. During the 1780s Congress had adopted two ordinances to regulate the process. The Northwest Ordinance of 1785 set up the ground rules for settling the land. The federal government would employ surveyors to divide the frontier land into a grid of square townships subdivided into 640-acre sections for sale to land speculators, who would make profits by reselling the lands to small farmers in smaller lots: usually 160 acres, a good size for a farm. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 established rules for making western territories into future states. Once a federal territory reached 60,000 people, it could hold a convention to frame a state constitution. If approved by Congress, the territory became a state, a status achieved by Ohio in 1803. Many more western states would follow.