Land area measurements in townships are converted into those using square pole units by switching between units that were used in various places and times.In the US Public Land Survey System, a township is a large piece of land, usually marked by square boundaries, used for dividing and mapping smaller portions. In comparison, a square pole or square rod, which is smaller than an acre, has been used traditionally in older measurements and land surveying found in Britain and its colonies. The overall township area is multiplied by a certain number to figure out its area in square pole. Making this conversion is useful when looking at old deeds, fine-tuning land studies, making sure property measurements are the same before converting, and making comparisons from the past to the present.
A township is a unit of area measurement that prevails mainly in the United States and is part of the PLSS. It refers to a square-shaped land unit that occupies an area of 36 square miles, being 6 by 6 miles.
Conversion to Other Units
A township can be converted into other units of area as follows:
The idea of the township was developed from the provision in the Land Ordinance of 1785, which intended to order land surveys for the orderly apportioning of land and selling of the public lands in the United States of America. The PLSS established townships and sections of land as a method to arrange the expansion of the western region.
Townships and Sections: A township is divided into 36 sections, and each such section is equivalent to 1 square mile or 640 acres. Some of the division possibilities of sections were for development into smaller parcels for subsequent sale or distribution.
The grid-like township system was intended to ease surveying and selling of land, as well as issuing documents of transfer of the ownership of land in newly procured territories.
Modern Usage
Townships are still used in land surveying and legal descriptions of property in the United States. Their applications include:
Land Ownership and Management: Townships form a useful basis for defining a land parcel, especially when the land is located in rural and relatively ill-developed regions.
Property Deeds: In legal descriptions of land, some of the basic landmarks used include townships, ranges, whether east or west of a principal meridian, and sections.
Land Planning: A township may be defined as an important aspect of regional planning as well as land resource planning and development.
Notable Uses of the Acre in Agriculture and Real Estate
The acre, as a smaller unit of measurement, is integral to understanding the divisions within a township:
Agriculture: The formation of townships means that farmers were able to buy land in portions, usually starting at one section (640 acres) or smaller aliquots (e.g., forty-acre sections).
Real Estate: Today, property transfers in the countryside often involve reference to township legal descriptions. For example, a deed may define a plot within a specific township, range, and section.
The square pole, whose other names include perch, rod, or square perch, is the oldest form of the measure of land area. It is equal to the square of a figure with the sides one pole in length, or one rod.
1 square pole = 30.25 square yards
1 square pole = 272.25 square feet
Conversion to Other Units
The square pole can be converted into other commonly used area units as follows:
Square Feet:1 square pole = 272.25 square feet
Square Yards:1 square pole = 30.25 square yards
Square Meters:1 square pole ≈ 25.29 square meters
Acres:1 square pole = 1/160 acre
Historical of Square Pole
This kind of square pole has its background in middle-aged England, and it was often used in defining small plots of land. The pole, however, measures in a linear way, and it is equal to 16.5 feet or 5.5 yards. By its use, the square pole was often employed together with other conventional types of land measurement, including the acre, rood, and square chain. One acre is equal to 160 square poles, and one rood is equivalent to forty square poles. This relationship made the square pole a handy unit to use when subdividing and possibly describing yet smaller portions of land.
Modern Usage
Today the square pole is not a used unit, and it is most valuable in historical research and legal cases of land ownership or property division. It has in fact very little use in the current or real estate surveys and is replaced by metric units such as the square meter or hectare or imperial units like the acre.
Notable Uses in Agriculture and Real Estate
Agriculture: Formerly, farmer used it in determining plantations and productivity of the land through the square pole.
Real Estate: While older property deeds or rural land descriptions, people tended to identify parcels of land in relation to square poles, particularly in countries that adopted British measurements.
Currently used infrequently, the square pole is still of some historical interest in studying the development of approaches to dividing land.
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