I 



On Land Surveys in the United States. 133 



skill and experience in relation to it, has undoubtedly been greater 

 in this country than in almost any other. The improvements which 

 have resulted have been confined to, or their benefits principally ex- 

 perienced by the new States. In the order and regularity of their 

 surveys — the judicious arrangement and location of the building 

 plots and streets in their villages — the preservation for future re- 

 ference of plans correctly executed, on which are distinctly traced 

 on • scale sufficiently large, the form and dimensions of each separate 

 right, those states are far before the older and more settled portions 

 of the country. 



The introduction of the system first instituted in the western part 

 of New York and since, with some modifications, adopted and pur- 

 sued by the general government in the surveys of the public lands, 

 is probably one of the most striking examples of the improvements 

 to which we allude. By this system the townships and subdivisions 

 of townships or sections and quarter sections, are disposed in a square 

 form, the lines of each corresponding in direction with the cardinal 

 points of the horizon ; — an arrangement from which no deviation is 

 permitted except when necessarily interrupted by a state or Indian 

 boundary, or by navigable waters. 



The preceding may be considered as exhibiting the progress and 

 amount of improvement in the department of surveying in this coun- 

 try for the long period of about two centuries which has elapsed since 

 its first settlement. There is, probably, no art or profession in which 

 native talent and skill has displayed itself to less advantage. The 

 circumstance of our continuing in the same beaten track with our 

 predecessors, may, perhaps, be attributed to a want of consciousness 

 on the part of the public, of the importance of the subject, or to the 

 fact that the public attention has been engrossed by other matters of 

 seemingly greater moment, or more probably to both combined. 



That there is ample room for improvement there can be no doubt, 

 and the time I trust is not far distant when the requisite measures will 

 be taken for effecting a thorough and judicious reorganization of the 

 mode of conducting the land surveys in every state in the Union. 

 Perhaps I cannot better illustrate the importance of such a change 

 than by exposing some of the more exceptionable parts of the pres- 

 ent system. 



Among the most prominent of the existing evils may be mentioned 

 that of the general incompetency of surveyors both as it regards the 

 requisite preliminary qualifications, and a proper practical knowledge 



