A square of land cut into four by the irrigation ditches and footpaths running through it. The oracle bone version sometimes had more divisions, but the idea never changed: this is farmland seen from above, the way a landowner or a god would see it.
田 is one of the most common Chinese surnames, and 田地 still means farmland today. The character is the picture behind 男 (male = field + strength) and 界 (boundary), and its grid shape gave its name to 田字格 — the four-square practice paper every Chinese child learns to write characters in.
A square of land with a cross of paths through it — a FIELD from above.
The squared paper Chinese children practise handwriting on is called 田字格 — 'field-character grid' — because each box looks exactly like 田.