[AT] Cubs - now Aliquot

Sun Jul 11 20:50:13 PDT 2004

Unfortunately, on this side of the pond we have a tendency to downplay
tradition.  If we don't like the lay of the land, we change it.  Other
cultures don't exhibit the disregard for natural contours that we do
here, and as a result, it's a whole lot easier to locate a metes and
bounds property overseas than it is here.  We did some searching for
ancestral land holdings in Haverford, Wales, a few years ago and found
the property more or less intact after nearly 300 years.  The Shire is
still exactly the same as it was then.  But I would be really hard
pressed to find the location of my great-great-great-... grandfather's
property in Virginia even though I have an accurate description off the
land patent from George III.  The county has been divided about a half
dozen times since then and the stream has been renamed, rerouted, and
probably covered over with a parking lot.

Larry

-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of charlie hill
Sent: Sunday, July 11, 2004 8:24 PM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] Cubs - now Aliquot

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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