The existence of section lines made property descriptions far more straightforward than the old metes and bounds system. 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'. Ī description of a quarter-quarter section in standard abbreviated form, might look like 'NW 1/4, NE 1/4, Sec. 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 section can be halved seven times in this way, down to a 5-acre (2 ha) parcel, or half of a quarter-quarter-quarter section-an easily surveyed 50-square- chain (2 ha) area. One of the reasons for creating sections of 640 acres (260 ha) was the ease of dividing into halves and quarters while still maintaining a whole number of acres. The phrases 'front 40' and ' back 40,' referring to farm fields, indicate the front and back quarter-quarter sections of land. After the Civil War, freedmen (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 (16 ha) parcels. In 1832 the smallest area of land that could be acquired was reduced to the 40-acre (16 ha) quarter-quarter section, and this size parcel became entrenched in American mythology. A quarter section is 160 acres (65 ha) and a 'quarter-quarter section' is 40 acres (16 ha).

Sections are customarily surveyed into smaller squares by repeated halving and quartering.

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. land surveying under the Public Land Survey System (PLSS), a section is an area nominally one square mile (2.6 square kilometers), containing 640 acres (260 hectares), with 36 sections making up one survey township on a rectangular grid. The primary grid pattern is of quarter sections ( 1⁄ 2 mi × 1⁄ 2 mi (800 m × 800 m)). Satellite image of crops growing in Kansas, mainly using center pivot irrigation.

Township and range map