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.

Perfectly square 160-acre quarter sections of farmland cover Central Indiana. One square mile Sectioning a township (36 sections).

Township range and section