Calif. starting points for land descriptions using U.S. Gov. Rect. Survey System:
A rectangular system of land survey that divides a district into 24-square mile quadrangles from the meridian (north-south line) and the baseline (east-west line); the tracts are divided into 6-mile-square parts called townships, which are in turn divided into 36 tracts, each 1 mile square, called sections.
4. Know land sizes; how large is a:
section – 1 sq mile
acre One acre comprises 4,840 square yards or 43,560 square feet.[1] While all modern variants of the acre contain 4,840 square yards, there are alternative definitions of a yard, so the exact size of an acre depends on which yard it is based on. Originally, an acre was understood as a selion of land sized at one furlong (660 ft) long and one chain (66 ft) wide; this may have also been understood as an approximation of the amount of land an ox could plough in one day. A square enclosing one acre is approximately 208 feet and 9 inches (63.6 metres) on a side. But as a unit of measure an acre has no prescribed shape; any perimeter enclosing 43,560 square feet is an acre in size.
5. What are the recognized legal methods of land description:
rectangular survey
meets and bounds
lot and block number
monument or occupancy
6. Another question regarding the size of land; ½ a section has how many acres, ¼ section, etc:
Since 1 section has 640 acres – 1/2 a section would be 320 acres
