One township contains how many sections?

Under the Rectangular Survey System (also known as the Public Land Survey System or Government Survey System), a township is a square parcel of land measuring six miles by six miles. This 36-square-mile area is uniformly subdivided into 36 smaller parcels called sections. Each section is a square measuring one mile by one mile and contains 640 acres. The sections within a township are numbered 1 through 36, beginning in the northeast corner and following a back-and-forth, or serpentine, pattern.

A. A township is six miles on each side, but it is subdivided into 36 sections, not six.

C. This number has no standard significance in the division of land under the Rectangular Survey System.

D. 640 is the number of acres contained within a single section, not the number of sections in a township.

1. U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management. (2009). Manual of Surveying Instructions. Section 3-75, p. 88. This official manual states, "The regular township is subdivided into thirty-six sections."

2. Jacobus, C. J. (2021). Real Estate Principles (13th ed.). Chapter 6, Legal Descriptions. This text, widely used in university real estate programs, explains that a township is a 6-by-6-mile square containing 36 sections.

3. University of Florida, Warrington College of Business. (n.d.). REE 3043: Real Estate Analysis Course Notes - Module 2: Property Rights and Legal Descriptions. The courseware specifies that a township is divided into 36 sections, each being one square mile.