quarter section

[Yespasmn]

a land unit equal to a quarter of a section (160 acres) and measuring 1/2 mile on a side

[Greta]

A quarter section is a term used in U.S land surveying, referring to a parcel of land approximately 160 acres in area, which is one-fourth of a square mile, or one-fourth of a section in the Public Land Survey System. The concept was established during the westward expansion to simplify land transactions. It is commonly used in rural areas where large tracts of land are involved.

[Carmellabita]

In U.S. 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 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 (65 ha) 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 (16 ha) quarter-quarter section, and this size parcel became entrenched in American mythology. 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. The phrases front 40 and back 40, referring to farm fields, indicate the front and back quarter-quarter sections of land.
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. 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. 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. or, alternatively, 34-3-1 NW4NE4 1PM. 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.