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53-488: The Preemption Act of 1841 permitted "squatters" who were living on federal government-owned land to purchase up to 160 acres (65 ha) for $ 1.25 per acre ($ 3.09 per hectare) before the land would be offered for sale to the general public. To qualify under the law, the "squatter" had to be the following: The Act further provided that Ohio , Indiana , Illinois , Alabama , Missouri , Mississippi , Louisiana , Arkansas and Michigan , or any state thereafter admitted to

106-433: A mile , or 5 + 1 ⁄ 2 yards (a quarter of a surveyor's chain ), and is exactly 5.0292 meters. The rod is useful as a unit of length because integer multiples of it can form one acre of square measure (area). The 'perfect acre' is a rectangular area of 43,560 square feet, bounded by sides 660 feet (a furlong ) long and 66 feet (a chain ) wide (220 yards by 22 yards) or, equivalently, 40 rods by 4 rods. An acre

159-445: A rood (for example a rectangular area of 40 rods times one rod), and 160 square perches to an acre (for example a rectangular area of 40 rods times 4 rods). This unit is usually referred to as a perch or pole even though square perch and square pole were the more precise terms. Rod was also sometimes used as a unit of area to refer to a rood. However, in the traditional French-based system in some countries, 1 square perche

212-416: A certain landowner might have been said to own 32,000 acres of land, not 50 square miles of land. The acre is related to the square mile, with 640 acres making up one square mile. One mile is 5280 feet (1760 yards). In western Canada and the western United States, divisions of land area were typically based on the square mile, and fractions thereof. If the square mile is divided into quarters, each quarter has

265-733: A few it continues as a statute measure . These include Antigua and Barbuda, American Samoa , The Bahamas , Belize, the British Virgin Islands , Canada , the Cayman Islands , Dominica , the Falkland Islands , Grenada , Ghana , Guam , the Northern Mariana Islands , Jamaica , Montserrat , Samoa , Saint Lucia , St. Helena , St. Kitts and Nevis , St. Vincent and the Grenadines , Turks and Caicos ,

318-461: A furlong (eighth-mile), and so 80 chains or 320 rods in one statute mile (1760 yards, 1609.344 m, 1.609344 km ); the definition of which was legally set in 1593 and popularized by Royal surveyor (called the 'sworn viewer' ) John Ogilby only after the Great Fire of London (1666). An acre is defined as the area of 10 square chains (that is, an area of one chain by one furlong), and derives from

371-555: A perch was standardized at 21 feet (6.4 m), making an Irish chain, furlong and mile proportionately longer by 27.27% than the "standard" English measure. Until English King Henry VIII seized the lands of the Roman Catholic Church in 1536, land measures as we now know them were essentially unknown. Instead a narrative system of landmarks and lists was used. Henry wanted to raise even more funds for his wars than he'd seized directly from church property (he'd also assumed

424-557: A primary unit for trade in the United Kingdom ceased to be permitted from 1 October 1995, due to the 1994 amendment of the Weights and Measures Act , where it was replaced by the hectare  – though its use as a supplementary unit continues to be permitted indefinitely. This was with the exemption of Land registration , which records the sale and possession of land, in 2010 HM Land Registry ended its exemption. The measure

477-588: A quarter of a chain (of 66 feet (20.12 m)), or 16 + 1 ⁄ 2 feet (5.03 m) long. The perch ( pertica ) as a lineal measure in Rome (also decempeda ) was 10 Roman feet (2.96 metres), and in France varied from 10 feet ( perche romanie ) to 22 feet ( perche d'arpent —apparently 1 ⁄ 10 of "the range of an arrow"—about 220 feet). To confuse matters further, by ancient Roman definition, an arpent equalled 120 Roman feet. The related unit of square measure

530-467: A side length of 1 ⁄ 2 mile (880 yards) and is 1 ⁄ 4 square mile in area, or 160 acres. These subunits are typically then again divided into quarters, with each side being 1 ⁄ 4 mile long, and being 1 ⁄ 16 of a square mile in area, or 40 acres. In the United States, farmland was typically divided as such, and the phrase "the back 40" refers to the 40-acre parcel to

583-456: A side. As a unit of measure, an acre has no prescribed shape; any area of 43,560 square feet is an acre. In the international yard and pound agreement of 1959, the United States and five countries of the Commonwealth of Nations defined the international yard to be exactly 0.9144 metre. The US authorities decided that, while the refined definition would apply nationally in all other respects,

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636-461: A surveyor's crew. With a direct ratio to the length of a surveyor's chain and the sides of both an acre and a square (mile), they were common tools used by surveyors, if only to lay out a known plottable baseline in rough terrain thereafter serving as the reference line for instrumental ( theodolite ) triangulations . The rod as a survey measure was standardized by Edmund Gunter in England in 1607 as

689-565: A yard are used (see survey foot and survey yard ), so the exact size of an acre depends upon the yard upon which it is based. The US survey acre is about 4,046.872 square metres; its exact value ( ⁠4046 + 13,525,426 / 15,499,969 ⁠  m ) is based on an inch defined by 1 metre = 39.37 inches exactly, as established by the Mendenhall Order of 1893. Surveyors in the United States use both international and survey feet, and consequently, both varieties of acre. Since

742-678: Is 42.21 square metres. As of August 2013, perches and roods are used as government survey units in Jamaica . They appear on most property title documents. The perch is also in extensive use in Sri Lanka , being favored even over the rood and acre in real estate listings there. Perches were informally used as a measure in Queensland real estate until the early 21st century, mostly for historical gazetted properties in older suburbs. A traditional unit of volume for stone and other masonry. A perch of masonry

795-480: Is also in widespread use in the acquisition of pipeline easements , as the offers for an easement are often expressed on a "price per rod". In the United Kingdom , the sizes of allotment gardens continue to be measured in square poles in some areas, sometimes being referred to simply as poles rather than square poles . In Vermont , the default right-of-way width of state and town highways and trails

848-538: Is always forty perches in length, and four perches in breadth, though an acre of woodlande be more in quantitie [value, i.e. was more valued commercially] than an acre of fyldelande The practice of using surveyor's chains, and perch-length rods made into a detachable stiff chain, came about a century later when iron was a more plentiful and common material. A chain is a larger unit of length measuring 66 feet (20.1168  m ), or 22 yards , or 100 links , or 4 rods (20.1168 meters ). There are 10 chains or 40 rods in

901-670: Is derived from the Norman , attested for the first time in a text of Fécamp in 1006 to the meaning of «agrarian measure». Acre dates back to the old Scandinavian akr “cultivated field, ploughed land” which is perpetuated in Icelandic and the Faroese akur “field (wheat)”, Norwegian and Swedish åker , Danish ager “field”, cognate with German Acker , Dutch akker , Latin ager , Sanskrit ajr , and Greek αγρός ( agros ). In English, an obsolete variant spelling

954-415: Is measured in acres. In Sri Lanka , the division of an acre into 160  perches or 4  roods is common. In Pakistan, residential plots are measured in kanal (20 marla = 1  kanal = 605 sq yards) and open/agriculture land measurement is in acres (8 kanal = 1 acre) and muraba (25 acres = 1 muraba = 200 kanal ), jerib , wiswa and gunta . Its use as

1007-418: Is not used for land registration . One acre equals 1 ⁄ 640 (0.0015625) square mile, 4,840 square yards, 43,560 square feet, or about 4,047 square metres (0.4047 hectares ) (see below). 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 upon the particular yard on which it is based. Originally, an acre

1060-546: Is sometimes abbreviated ac but is usually spelled out as the word "acre". Traditionally, in the Middle Ages , an acre was conceived of as the area of land that could be ploughed by one man using a team of eight oxen in one day. The acre is still a statutory measure in the United States. Both the international acre and the US survey acre are in use, but they differ by only four parts per million (see below). The most common use of

1113-494: Is still used to communicate with the public and informally (non-contract) by the farming and property industries. 1 international acre is equal to the following metric units: 1 United States survey acre is equal to: 1 acre (both variants) is equal to the following customary units: Perhaps the easiest way for US residents to envision an acre is as a rectangle measuring 88 yards by 55 yards ( 1 ⁄ 10 of 880 yards by 1 ⁄ 16 of 880 yards), about 9 ⁄ 10

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1166-543: Is therefore 160 square rods or 10 square chains. The name perch derives from the Ancient Roman unit , the pertica . The measure also has a relationship with the military pike of about the same size. Both measures date from the sixteenth century, when the pike was still utilized in national armies. The tool has been supplanted, first by steel tapes and later by electronic tools such as surveyor lasers and optical target devices for surveying lands. In dialectal English,

1219-535: Is three rods 49 ft 6 in (15.09 m). Rods can also be found on the older legal descriptions of tracts of land in the United States , following the " metes and bounds " method of land survey; as shown in this actual legal description of rural real estate: LEGAL DESCRIPTION: Commencing 45 rods East and 44 rods North of Southwest corner of Southwest 1/4 of Southwest 1/4; thence North 36 rods; thence East 35 rods; thence South 36 rods; thence West 35 rods to

1272-414: Is traditionally defined as the area of one chain by one furlong (66 by 660 feet ), which is exactly equal to 10 square chains, 1 ⁄ 640 of a square mile, 4,840 square yards, or 43,560 square feet, and approximately 4,047 m , or about 40% of a hectare . Based upon the international yard and pound agreement of 1959 , an acre may be declared as exactly 4,046.8564224 square metres . The acre

1325-531: The National Institute of Standards and Technology announced their joint intent to end the "temporary" continuance of the US survey foot, mile, and acre units (as permitted by their 1959 decision, above), with effect from the end of 2022. The Puerto Rican cuerda (0.39 ha; 0.97 acres) is sometimes called the "Spanish acre" in the continental United States. The acre is commonly used in many current and former Commonwealth countries by custom, and in

1378-496: The US survey foot (and thus the survey acre) would continue 'until such a time as it becomes desirable and expedient to readjust [it]'. By inference, an "international acre" may be calculated as exactly 4,046.856 422 4 square metres but it does not have a basis in any international agreement. Both the international acre and the US survey acre contain 1 ⁄ 640 of a square mile or 4,840 square yards, but alternative definitions of

1431-452: The 15th century; however, local customs maintained its use. In the 13th century, perches were variously recorded in lengths of 18 feet (5.49 m), 20 feet (6.1 m), 22 feet (6.71 m) and 24 feet (7.32 m); and even as late as 1820, a House of Commons report notes lengths of 16 + 1 ⁄ 2 feet (5.03 m), 18 feet (5.49 m), 21 feet (6.4 m), 24 feet (7.32 m), and even 25 feet (7.62 m). In Ireland ,

1484-514: The Balkans, Norway , and Denmark , where it was equal to about two-thirds acre (2,700 m ). Statutory values for the acre were enacted in England, and subsequently the United Kingdom, by acts of: Historically, the size of farms and landed estates in the United Kingdom was usually expressed in acres (or acres, roods , and perches ), even if the number of acres was so large that it might conveniently have been expressed in square miles. For example,

1537-725: The Paris arpent used in Quebec before the metric system was adopted is sometimes called "French acre" in English, even though the Paris arpent and the Normandy acre were two very different units of area in ancient France (the Paris arpent became the unit of area of French Canada, whereas the Normandy acre was never used in French Canada). In Germany, the Netherlands, and Eastern Europe

1590-452: The Union would be paid 10% of the proceeds from the sale of such public land. The Preemption Act allowed individuals to claim federal land as their personal property. To preserve ownership, the claimant had to accomplish specific things to legitimize the claim. One way was to reside on the land. Another was to work consistently to improve the land for at least five years. It was not necessary that

1643-575: The United Kingdom, ten chains). Bars of metal one rod long were used as standards of length when surveying land. The rod was still in use as a common unit of measurement in the mid-19th century, when Henry David Thoreau used it frequently when describing distances in his work, Walden . In traditional Scottish units , a Scottish rood ( ruid in Lowland Scots , ròd in Scottish Gaelic ), also fall measures 222 inches (6 ells ). The rod

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1696-605: The United Kingdom, the United States and the US Virgin Islands . In the Republic of Ireland , the hectare is legally used under European units of measurement directives ; however, the acre (the same standard statute as used in the UK, not the old Irish acre , which was of a different size) is still widely used, especially in agriculture. In India, residential plots are measured in square feet or square metre, while agricultural land

1749-469: The acre is to measure tracts of land. The acre is used in many established and former Commonwealth of Nations countries by custom. In a few, it continues as a statute measure , although not since 2010 in the UK, and not for decades in Australia , New Zealand , and South Africa . In many places where it is not a statute measure, it is still lawful to "use for trade" if given as supplementary information and

1802-544: The back of the farm. Most of the Canadian Prairie Provinces and the US Midwest are on square-mile grids for surveying purposes. Rod (unit) The rod , perch , or pole (sometimes also lug ) is a surveyor's tool and unit of length of various historical definitions. In British imperial and US customary units , it is defined as 16 + 1 ⁄ 2 feet , equal to exactly 1 ⁄ 320 of

1855-636: The claimant have title to the land; living there and working toward improving the stake were enough. However, if the land remained idle for six months, the government could step in and take the property. Sections 8 and 9 of the Preemption Act granted 500,000 acres of land to each included state and provided that the proceeds from the sales of such lands "shall be faithfully applied to objects of internal improvement [...] namely, roads, railways, bridges, canals and improvement of water-courses, and draining of swamps." The Preemption Act of 1841 helped to establish

1908-434: The debts of the monasteries ), and as James Burke writes and quotes in the book Connections that the English monk Richard Benese "produced a book on how to survey land using the simple tools of the time, a rod with cord carrying knots at certain intervals, waxed and resined against wet weather." Benese poetically described the measure of an acre in terms of a perch: an acre bothe of woodlande, also of fyldlande [heath]

1961-486: The difference between the US survey acre and international acre (0.016 square metres, 160 square centimetres or 24.8 square inches), is only about a quarter of the size of an A4 sheet or US letter , it is usually not important which one is being discussed. Areas are seldom measured with sufficient accuracy for the different definitions to be detectable. In October 2019, the US National Geodetic Survey and

2014-562: The doctrine of Manifest Destiny in North America . The Kansas and Nebraska Territories were largely settled by such claims. In 1891, the Preemption Act was repealed by Congress and replaced by the Land Revision Act . Acre The acre ( / ˈ eɪ k ər / AY -kər ) is a unit of land area used in the British imperial and the United States customary systems. It

2067-479: The farmers (still in the 20th century) made the difference between the grande acre (68 ares, 66 centiares) and the petite acre (56 to 65 ca). The Normandy acre was usually divided in 4 vergées ( roods ) and 160 square perches , like the English acre. The Normandy acre was equal to 1.6 arpents , the unit of area more commonly used in Northern France outside of Normandy. In Canada,

2120-525: The legislation in each state. The U.S. National Geodetic Survey and National Institute of Standards and Technology have replaced the definition for the above-mentioned units by the international 1959 definition of the foot, being exactly 0.3048 meters. Despite no longer being in widespread use, the rod is still employed in certain specialized fields. In recreational canoeing , maps measure portages (overland paths where canoes must be carried) in rods; typical canoes are approximately one rod long. The term

2173-484: The place of beginning, Manistique Township, Schoolcraft County, Michigan. The terms pole , perch , rod and rood have been used as units of area, and perch is also used as a unit of volume. As a unit of area , a square perch (the perch being standardized to equal 16 + 1 ⁄ 2 feet, or 5 + 1 ⁄ 2 yards) is equal to a square rod , 30 + 1 ⁄ 4 square yards (25.29 square metres ) or 1 ⁄ 160 acre. There are 40 square perches to

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2226-533: The rod or perch was first defined in law by the Composition of Yards and Perches , one of the statutes of uncertain date from the late 13th to early 14th centuries: tres pedes faciunt ulnam, quinque ulne & dimidia faciunt perticam (three feet make a yard, five and a half yards make a perch). The length of the chain was standardized in 1620 by Edmund Gunter at exactly four rods. Fields were measured in acres, which were one chain (four rods) by one furlong (in

2279-543: The shapes of new-tech plows and the desire to quickly survey seized church lands into a quantity of squares for quick sales by Henry VIII's agents; buyers simply wanted to know what they were buying whereas Henry was raising cash for wars against Scotland and France. Consequently, the surveyor's chain and surveyor rods or poles (the perch) have been used for several centuries in Britain and in many other countries influenced by British practices such as North America and Australia. By

2332-406: The size of a standard American football field . To be more exact, one acre is 90.75% of a 100-yd-long by 53.33-yd-wide American football field (without the end zone ). The full field, including the end zones, covers about 1.32 acres (0.53 ha). For residents of other countries, the acre might be envisioned as rather more than half of a 1.76 acres (0.71 ha) football pitch . The word acre

2385-483: The term lug has also been used, although the Oxford English Dictionary states that this unit, while usually of 16 + 1 ⁄ 2 feet, may also be of 15, 18, 20, or 21 feet. In the United States until 1 January 2023, the rod was often defined as 16.5 US survey feet, or approximately 5.029 210 058 m. In England, the perch was officially discouraged in favour of the rod as early as

2438-407: The time of the industrial revolution and the quickening of land sales, canal and railway surveys, et al. Surveyor rods such as used by George Washington were generally made of dimensionally stable metal—semi-flexible drawn wrought iron linkable bar stock (not steel), such that the four folded elements of a chain were easily transportable through brush and branches when carried by a single man of

2491-460: The traditional unit of area was Morgen . Like the acre, the morgen was a unit of ploughland, representing a strip that could be ploughed by one man and an ox or horse in a morning. There were many variants of the morgen , differing between the different German territories, ranging from 1 ⁄ 2 to 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 acres (2,000 to 10,100 m ). It was also used in Old Prussia , in

2544-531: The traditional unit of area was the arpent carré , a measure based on the Roman system of land measurement. The acre was used only in Normandy (and neighbouring places outside its traditional borders), but its value varied greatly across Normandy, ranging from 3,632 to 9,725 square metres, with 8,172 square metres being the most frequent value. But inside the same pays of Normandy, for instance in pays de Caux ,

2597-489: The yard as exactly 3600 ⁄ 3937 meters, with all other units of linear measurement, including the rod, based on the yard. In 1959, an international agreement (the international yard and pound agreement), defined the yard as the fundamental unit of length in the Imperial/USCU system, defined as exactly 0.9144 metres. However, the above-noted units, when used in surveying, may retain their pre-1959 values, depending on

2650-572: Was aker . According to the Act on the Composition of Yards and Perches , dating from around 1300, an acre is "40 perches [ rods ] in length and four in breadth", meaning 220 yards by 22 yards. As detailed in the diagram, an acre was roughly the amount of land tillable by a yoke of oxen in one day. Before the enactment of the metric system , many countries in Europe used their own official acres. In France,

2703-416: Was phased out as a legal unit of measurement in the United Kingdom as part of a ten-year metrication process that began on 24 May 1965. In the United States, the rod, along with the chain, furlong, and statute mile (as well as the survey inch and survey foot) were based on the pre-1959 values for United States customary units of linear measurement until 1 January 2023. The Mendenhall Order of 1893 defined

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2756-440: Was the scrupulum or decempeda quadrata , equivalent to about 8.76 m (94.3 sq ft). Units comparable to the perch, pole or rod were used in many European countries, with names that include French : perche and canne , German : Ruthe , Italian : canna and pertica , Polish : pręt and Spanish : canna . They were subdivided in many different ways, and were of many different lengths. In England,

2809-401: Was understood as a strip of land sized at forty perches (660 ft, or 1  furlong ) long and four perches (66 ft) wide; this may have also been understood as an approximation of the amount of land a yoke of oxen could plough in one day (a furlong being "a furrow long"). A square enclosing one acre is approximately 69.57 yards, or 208 feet 9 inches (63.61 metres), on

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