Section (United States Land Surveying)
In U.S. land surveying under the Public Land Survey System (PLSS), a section is an area nominally one square mile, containing 640 acres (260 ha), with 36 sections making up one survey township on a rectangular grid.
The legal description of a tract of land under the PLSS includes the name of the state, name of the county, township number, range number, section number, and portion of a section. Sections are customarily surveyed into smaller squares by repeated halving and quartering. A quarter section is 160 acres and a "quarter-quarter section" is 40 acres (16 ha). In 1832 the smallest area of land that could be acquired was reduced to the 40 acre quarter-quarter section, and this size parcel became entrenched in American mythology. After the Civil War freed slaves were reckoned to be self-sufficient with "40 acres and a mule." In the 20th century real estate developers preferred working with 40 acre parcels. The phrases "front 40" and "back 40," referring to farm fields, indicate quarter-quarter sections of land.
One of the reasons for creating sections of 640 acres was the ease of dividing into halves and quarters while still maintaining a whole number of acres. A section can be halved seven times in this way, down to a 5 acres (2.0 ha) parcel, or half of a quarter-quarter-quarter section—an easily surveyed 50 square chain area. This system was of great practical value on the American frontier, where surveyors often had a shaky grasp of mathematics and were required to work quickly.
A description of a quarter-quarter section in standard abbreviated form, might look like "NW 1/4, NE 1/4, Sec. 34, T.3S, R.1W, 1st P.M.". In expanded form this would read "the Northwest quarter of the Northeast quarter of Section 34 of Township 3 South, Range 1 West, first Principal Meridian".
Read more about Section (United States Land Surveying): History, Numbering Within A Township, Subdivision of A Section, Measurement Anomalies, Alternatives and Legacy Systems
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