A township is thirty-six sections, each a mile square. A section is six hundred and forty acres. A quarter section, half a mile square, is one hundred and sixty acres. An eighth section, half a mile long, north and south, and a quarter of a mile wide, is eighty acres. A sixteenth section, a quarter of a mile square, is forty acres. The sections are all numbered 1 to36, commencing at northeast corner, thus:

The sections are all divided in quarters, which are named by the cardinal points, as in section 1. The quarters are divided in the same way, as shown in the smaller diagram. The description of a forty-acre lot would read: The south half of the west half of the south-west quarter of section 1 in township 24, north of range 7 west, or as the case might be; and sometimes will fall short and sometimes overrun the number of acres it is supposed to contain.