256 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



terms township snd section. Afterward the ordinance respecting the 

 extent of townships was amended by striking out the words seven 

 miles square and substituting the words six miles square. It was 

 quite a while after the passage of this law before it occurred to those 

 able, learned and wise law-makers that a township six miles square 

 could not contain 49 sections one mile square. 



The ordinance, as finally amended and passed, provided for town- 

 ships six miles square, containing 36 sections of one mile square. The 

 first public surveys were made under this ordinance. The townships, 

 six miles square, were laid out in ranges, the townships being numbered 

 from south to north and the ranges from east to west. The sections 

 were numbered from 1 to 36, commencing with one in the southeast 

 corner of the township and running from south to north in each tier. 



In 1796 a new law was passed providing for the appointment of a 

 surveyor-general, and further providing that the sections shall be num- 

 bered, respectively, beginning with the number 1 in the northeast sec- 

 tion, and proceeding west and east alternately through the township, 

 with progressive numbers, till the thirty-six be accomplished. 



This method of numbering sections is still in use. The same law 

 also provided that the land shall be divided by north and south lines 

 run according to the true meridian, and by others crossing them at 

 right angles, so as to form townships six miles square ; also, that the 

 townships be subdivided into thirty-six sections, each of which contain 

 640 acres. 



But in the execution of this law, it was found that the require- 

 ment that the lines of survey shall conform to true meridians, and that 

 the townships shall be six miles square, taken together, involved a 

 mathematical impossibility, due to the convergence of the meridians. 

 So the law was again amended, and the words as nearly as may be 

 inserted ; and now reads each section shall contain 640 acres, as nearly 

 as may be. And the incompatibilities of the requirements of the law 

 and practice were harmonized by the adoption of the following pro- 

 visions : 



First, the establishment of a principal meridian, conforming to the 

 true meridian, and at right angles to it a base line, conforming to 

 parallels of latitude. 



Second, the establishment of standard parallels, conforming to 

 parallels of latitude, initiated from the principle meridians at intervals 

 of twenty-four miles, and extended east and west of the same. 



Third, the establishment of guide meridians, conforming to true 

 meridians, initiated upon the base line and successive standard paral- 

 lels at intervals of twenty-four miles, resulting in tracts of land twenty- 



