<P> In U.S. land surveying under the Public Land Survey System (PLSS), a section is an area nominally one square mile (2.6 square kilometers), containing 640 acres (260 hectares), with 36 sections making up one survey township on a rectangular grid . </P> <P> The legal description of a tract of land under the PLSS includes the name of the state, name of the county, township number, range number, section number, and portion of a section . Sections are customarily surveyed into smaller squares by repeated halving and quartering . A quarter section is 160 acres (65 ha) and a "quarter - quarter section" is 40 acres (16 ha). In 1832 the smallest area of land that could be acquired was reduced to the 40 - acre (16 ha) quarter - quarter section, and this size parcel became entrenched in American mythology . After the Civil War, Freedmen (freed slaves) were reckoned to be self - sufficient with "40 acres and a mule ." In the 20th century real estate developers preferred working with 40 - acre (16 ha) parcels . The phrases "front 40" and "back 40," referring to farm fields, indicate the front and back quarter - quarter sections of land . </P>

What is the dimensions of a section of land