[AT] Cubs - now Aliquot

charlie hill chill8 at cox.net
Sun Jul 11 18:24:15 PDT 2004


Yep.  If you want to have some fun come on down here to eastern NC where
deeds are defined by the run of a branch and the fork of a tree that died
200 years ago.

Charlie
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Larry D. Goss" <rlgoss at evansville.net>
To: "'Antique tractor email discussion group'"
<at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 11, 2004 1:16 PM
Subject: RE: [AT] Cubs - now Aliquot


> <Smiles for miles!>
>
> I wondered if anyone would get curious about that, Dave.  I'm glad to
> know you did.
>
> All of that works as you've described except for the "Seven Ranges" of
> the first survey which starts from "ground zero" at the intersection of
> Allered's Line (the western boundary of Pennsylvania) and the north
> shore of the Ohio River.  Those first seven ranges of public lands were
> laid out at right angles to what is described in your email, and the
> section numbering system is different also.  Since I have ancestors who
> settled in that region, I get all screwed up when I'm trying to locate
> their whereabouts on the basis of the land descriptions. And then
> there's the 10 o'clock survey of Knox and Floyd counties in Indiana, and
> the Jackson Purchase area of Kentucky and Tennessee...
>
> At least the public land materials are traceable; unlike the metes and
> bounds descriptions of the original 13 colonies.
>
> Larry
>
> (The 10 o'clock survey is so called because the French "shot the sun" at
> 10 AM on a particular date and used that direction as the base line of
> the survey.)
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
> [mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of Dave Merchant
> Sent: Sunday, July 11, 2004 3:32 AM
> To: Antique tractor email discussion group
> Subject: Re: [AT] Cubs - now Aliquot
>
> Curiosity strikes...
>
> From:
> http://www.co.north-slope.ak.us/gis/toolbox/encyclopaedia/text/a_text.ht
> m
>
>   Aliquot land description
>
> Aliquot means "contained an exact number of times in something else"
> (WWWebster Dictionary).
> There are many land areas which are described using an aliquot land
> description, a method that uses meridians, and a grid of townships and
> sections. There are five meridians established for Alaska,
> each with its own name (e.g., Kateel, Umiat, etc.) The township grid is
> defined by township lines
> running East to West (they define the southern and northern boundaries
> of
> the grid), and range lines
> running North to South (they define the eastern and western boundaries
> of
> the grid and are offset
> to compensate to the curvature of the earth.) Township and range lines
> are
> numbered and their
> name indicates their compass direction and how far they are from an
> established base line or
> principal meridian respectively.
> Each township square in the grid is named after the township and range
> lines that enclose it
> and the meridian it is referenced to (e.g., township 6 North, range 30
> west, Umiat meridian, etc.)
> Each township is a square measuring 6 miles by 6 miles containing a 36
> square miles.
> Each one of these 36 square miles is known as a section (usually 640
> acres), with numbers
> 1-36 assigned to each one in a certain order, to designate the location
> of
> each section within
> the township. Each section is subdivided into quarter sections and each
> quarter section can be
> further subdivided into either quarters or halves, as needed. Quarter
> sections and their
> subdivisions are named using compass descriptions. For example, the
> aliquot
> land description
> of a native allotment could be S1/2NE1/4SEC9T6NR30WUM, which means that
> the
> allotment
> is located in the southern 1/2 of the northeast 1/4 of section 9,
> township
> 6 North, range 30 West, Umiat meridian.
>
> Dave Merchant
>
>
> At 05:10 PM 7/4/2004, you wrote:
> >Larry D. Goss wrote:
> >
> >>The first time I remember seeing wording like you heard George use was
> >>in literature advertising the John Deere L.
> >>
> >>As I understand it, part of the rationale for the aliquots of land in
> >>the public survey system containing 40 acres was because this is a
> much
> >>land as a man with a single team of horses or mules could maintain.
> >>This same amount of land was supposed to be able to sustain the farmer
> >>and his family.  It also just so happens (duh!) that when you divide a
> >>square mile into a checkerboard pattern, each aliquot ends up being 40
> >>acres.  It's kind of a chicken and egg situation.  If none of these
> >>reasons make sense to you, then make up your own story.  :-)
> >>
> >>It was nice to travel through Farmer's "greenway" trail last month.
> As
> >>I was driving over it in Ol' 191, I was reminded of the way the fields
> >>on the farm where I grew up were broken into smaller patches because
> >>they needed to be "horse size".  And there were a number of large
> trees
> >>in between the fields and along the fence rows which were absolutely
> >>essential for the welfare of the horses.  That's one of the things
> >>that's missing from Farmer's nature trail -- not enough shade trees at
> >>the edges of the fields.
> >>
> >>Now that the farm where I grew up is farmed by modern big machinery,
> all
> >>the green belts are gone, and so are the trees.  They "got in the
> road"
> >>of the equipment.
> >>
> >>Larry
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> >    You have to remember too that farming a 40 acre mid-west farm in
> those
> > days had a fairly small amount of grain crops involved. You had to
> have
> > pastures for the horses, cow or cows, sheep and small lots for the
> hogs.
> > Then you had to have a hay field to get them through the winter. By
> the
> > time you took out space for the house, garden, barn and chicken house
> and
> > chicken lot there was maybe only 25 acres left for "tilled" crops like
>
> > corn, wheat and oats. Soybeans are a "relatively" new crop in the US.
> You
> > about had to grow wheat and oats. The wheat straw was bedding and the
> > oats for feeding. Oats straw was often fed to cattle.
> >
> >    You probably noticed a lot of small trees, mostly walnut and ash,
> > along the trail. Kind of hard to get any size on them quickly...   :-)
> >You may have also noticed the X-mas trees in the back corner. The small
>
> >Norway Spruce are still shorter than the grass. The Scotch Pine are
> ready
> >to be trimmed this month again. A number have been damaged by the deer
> but
> >I left them standing hoping they will keep using the same ones to rub
> >their antlers on. I badly need to get another 200 in the ground this
> fall.
> >
> >    My father and I fought long and hard about trees. If he would have
> had
> > his way every tree would have been gone and every square foot planted
> to
> > corn or soybeans. He was very angry that I would not clear that back
> > corner so he could have the old trolley grade dozed and plant corn all
>
> > the way to the railroad tracks. The farm was badly overgrown when they
>
> > bought it in 1951 and needed a lot of clearing then, he just never
> knew
> > when to stop...
> >
> >    Speaking of oats... I have been baling the field of oats across the
>
> > road from the house as hay. I cut them green and bale grain and all. I
>
> > grew them as a nurse crop for timothy and orchard grass and as
> something
> > to sell off of the field early. They were planted a little thin so
> that
> > they would not compete too hard with the new grasses. We also baled
> some
> > "mixed stuff" off of a neighbor's back lot. We baled about 1,000 bales
>
> > the last of the week. I still have a few acres to go on the oats and
> > maybe another 8 acres of mixed stuff to bale yet. We had some needed
> rain
> > Saturday night and the orchard grass has jumped several inches
> overnight
> > now that the oats are gone. Some people claim that critters won't eat
> > oats hay but we used to feed it to cattle and sheep and the horses at
> the
> > west barn have given it "two hooves up"...   ;-)
> >
> >    The patch we plowed at cubfest is now home to about 600 hills of
> > pumpkin plants. If each hill makes 5 pumpkins...
> >
> >"farmer"
> >_______________________________________________
> >AT mailing list
> >http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
>
> Dave Merchant
> kosh at nesys.com
> nesys_com at ameritech.net
>
> http://www.nesys.com
> http://www.nesys.org
>
>
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