Land survey

“ He thought that tracts of land should be surveyed so as to permit settlers to live in communities at the apex of a triangle. In order that they might enjoy the social amenities and advantages of community life while their farms spread out from that place of common residence to the farther extremity of the land they held. It is of additional interest to recall that the introduction of the rectangular system of land survey from the United States led to considerable unrest in the Canadian West. ”

“ Early in the century, almost coincident with the establishment of the land surveys, provision had been made for the survey of the coasts, and although through various causes it was not vigorously prosecuted until a third of the century had passed, when the time came for its economic use in meeting the new conditions imposed by the general progress of the nation, the knowledge had been gained that was essential to advance and develop the great interests affected. ”

“ Thus, unless a tract is well-known to be mineral in character, and is notoriously operated for mining purposes at the time of survey of the township, it is just as liable to be returned as agricultural land as anything else, because the deputy surveyor, upon whose field notes the Surveyor-General always bases his returns, is usually in a hurry to get over as much ground as possible, and consequently pays no heed to geological conditions, even if he knew anything about them. ”

“ Does any one have the right to ruin the land?
Co-operative soil surveys were carried on during the year in the various States with complete success. Every State now sees the need of reliable study and mapping of its soils, to serve as a basis for farm management, taxation, and real estate. At a recent meeting of the National Tax Association, held in Des Moines, Iowa, the relation of land surveys and taxation was discussed with considerable detail. It was the conclusion that land value maps should be prepared by soil surveys to serve as a physical basis of taxation. ”

“ Survey. Taking a sheet with him into the district represented on it, he was to examine the quality of the soil in lots of from fifty to thirty acres, or still smaller bits, to mark the bounds of each lot on the survey map, and to enter in his field book the value thereof, with all the special circumstances specially stated. The examination was to include digging to ascertain the depth of the soil and the nature of the subsoil. All land was to be valued at its agricultural worth, supposing it liberally set, leaving out the value of timber, turf, etc. ”

“ Provided, however, that any individual qualified to make entry of desert lands under said acts who has, prior to survey, taken possession of a tract of unsurveyed desert land not exceeding in area three hundred and twenty acres in compact form, and has reclaimed or has in good faith commenced the work of reclaiming the same, shall have the preference right to make entry of such tract under said acts, in conformity with the public land surveys, within ninety days after the filing of the approved plat of survey in the district land office.' Comp. ”

“ The Professors of this Science [of land surveying] are honoured with a more earnest attention than falls to the lot of any other philosophers. Arithmetic, Theoretical Geometry, Astronomy, and Music are discoursed upon to listless audiences, sometimes to empty benches. But the land surveyor is like a judge; the deserted fields become his forum, crowded with eager spectators. You would fancy him a madman when you see him walking along the most devious paths. ”

“ Worsley was then working, and defines the course he had to follow. It provides, in three preliminary recommendations, for ascertaining the lands to be surveyed, and defines in six articles the kind of survey required; by which it is clear that a survey by estates is what the Committee considered necessary, no territorial boundaries being required; and that barren land was not to be surveyed unless lying within profitable land, and then only for the sake of being excluded from it, such land, whether so situate or beyond the mearing of the estate, having to be "cast in." ”

“ Hence the running of lines in the field and the laying out and platting of townships, sections and legal subdivisions are not alone sufficient to constitute a survey. Until all conditions as to filing in the proper land office and all requirements as to approval have been complied with, the lands are to be regarded as unsurveyed and not subject to disposal as surveyed lands. ”

“ In the United States the earth beneath the surface is investigated by geological surveys, state and federal; the surface is surveyed chiefly by the Geological Survey and Land Office of the Interior Department, the Soil Bureau of the Agricultural Department and the Coast and Geodetic Survey of the Department of Commerce and Labor, with corresponding instrumentalities in some states ”

“ In 1877, when the public lands in that vicinity were surveyed, an area embracing approximately 1,200 acres was, by the wrongful act or error of the surveyor, omitted from the survey and meandered as a lake, when in truth it was not such, but was agricultural land susceptible of cultivation. That area still remains unsurveyed and includes the tract in question. ”

“ But if there never was such a lake-no water forming an actual and visible boundary-on the north end of the lots, it would seem unreasonable, either to prolong the side lines of the survey indefinitely until a lake should be found, or to change the situs of the lots laterally in order to adapt it to a neighboring lake. ”

“ It was made the duty of the surveyor to whom such application was made, by a responsible party, to survey the land designated, within three months thereafter, and within 60 days after the survey to certify and record a map and field notes of the survey, and return and file them in the general land office of the state. ”

“ A second work, on "Leveling and Higher Surveying," was left unfinished at the author's death, but was completed by the editor of the present volume, and published in 1870. These two works have now been revised and combined by Dr. Staley. The general divisions of the resulting treatise are land surveying, leveling, topography, triangular surveying, hydrographical surveying, and mining surveying. ”

“ That where any large parcell of lands forfeited shall lye together, in which shall be contained some smaller parcell of land not forfeited, or excepted, or of lands barren and unprofitable, that in all such cases the surveyor, besides his admeasurement of the outline of the said forfeited land, shall exactly admeasure by his instrument as well all such parcells of lands by themselves as are excepted and not forfeited, as all that are barren and unprofitable.⁠5thly. ”

“ Authorization for the headright was then passed on to a commissioned surveyor who ran off fifty acres for each person imported and located the grant in the area selected by the claimant as long as the land had not already been patented and had not been barred for white settlement in order to maintain peace with the Indians. Upon completion of the survey and of marking the boundaries, a copy of the record along with the headright certificate was presented to the secretary's office where a patent was prepared and a notation made of those imported. ”

“ As touching unprofitable lands, which by these instructions you are appointed to survey only by estimate, you are faythfully to describe the nature, quality and quantity, and bounds of the said land, and especially where the same boundeth upon the profitable lands which you are to survey, and to sett downe the reasons why you account or returne the same unprofitable. ”

“ Following the dissolution of the company in 1624, the office of surveyor-general was established with a royal appointee who was charged with the responsibility of maintaining the survey records and issuing commissions to the surveyors of the colony. Some difficulty was encountered in securing qualified and reliable men. This led during the interregnum to a law in March, 1654⁄55, calling for the dismissal of unqualified surveyors and placing the power of appointment in the hands of the county court. ”

“ The method of surveying varies with the magnitude of the survey, which may embrace an empire or represent a small plot of land. All surveys rest primarily on linear measurements for the direct determination of distances; but linear measurement is often supplemented by angular measurement which enables distances to be determined by principles of geometry over areas which cannot be conveniently measured directly, such, for instance, as hilly or broken ground. ”

“ In 1498 Vasco da Gama saw a chart of the coast-line of India, which was shown him by a Gujarati, and there can be little doubt that he benefited largely by information obtained from charts which were of the nature of practical coast surveys. The beginning of land surveying (apart from small plan-making) was probably coincident with the earliest attempts to discover the size and figure of the earth by means of exact measurements, i.e. with the inauguration of geodesy (see Geodesy and Earth, Figure of the) , which is the fundamental basis of all scientific surveying. ”

“ You are carefully to describe the bounds of each surround you make, and the nature of the land surrounded, as first whether it be profitable or unprofitable, and then of what species or kind each of the said land is, as whether the profitable be arable, meadow, or pasture ”

“ Gross surveys.And whereas, for the more speedy and effectual setling the adventurers, officers, and soldiers, in the said forfeited lands, power is given by the commission, and instructions under the great seal, in this Act before-mentioned, for the taking and returning a gross survey of the said forfeited lands, as in and by the said commission and Persons possessed of more land than their proportion may buy the overplus or restore it. ”

“ That the Comittee, having conferred with the Surveyor-Generall, and viewed certaine instructions prepared by him to be issued to such persons as are to be imployed in the surveying and admeasuring of land, and considering of how great import it is (as they humbly conceive) , as well to the interest of the Commonwealth as to that of the army, that the souldiery should, with what exspedition is possible, be put into possession of their lands ”

“ As touching the admeasurement of unprofitable lands: if the said unprofitable land shall lye mixed with or adjoyning unto lands profitable, in parcells less then five hundred acres, the said William Petty is to survey or cause to be surveyed distinctly by itselfe every such part of unprofitable land with the instrument, provided none of the said parcells containe less then fourty acres ”

“ Mr Worsly's letter to his surveyors 16th Decb, 1654.By mine of the 17th of November last, I gave you an accompt that the Lord Deputy and Councill, with a councill of officers, were of opinion, that the present surveys would not be sufficient to put every man into his particular proportion and quantity of land without another admeasurement ”

“ That the said Dr shall exactly survey and distinguish in .... lands between all lands as is profitable and all lands which is unprofitable, to the end the said profitable forfeited land may be exactly knowne; which profitable land he is again to distinguish into arable, meadow, and pasture, according to the instructions of the Act, and the unprofitable into wood, bog, and mountaine, &c. ”

“ Advancements and abatements upon rates of land over Act rate, to be made by even groats; odd roods and perches to be esteemed for whole or half acres, 189.
Adventurers, committee of, for settlement of lands; for proceedings of, see Committee of Adventurers sitting at Grocers' Hall.
Agreement with Dr. Petty to be in legal form, 22. ”

“ That for the better enquiry and finding out of the said forfeited land in each county, the said surveyors may have power to sit in such and soe many parts of the counties as they shall conceive requisite, there to call the inhabitants of the countrey, to summon juries, to keep courts of survey, and to administer oath to such persons as they shall find necessary, for the better and fuller information of themselfs of the particulars of each man's estate which is forfeited.⁠3dly. ”

“ Those acts also provide that when, in the opinion of the president, 'a departure from the ordinary method of surveying land on any river, lake, bayou or watercourse, would promote the public interest,' the land may be surveyed, and sold in tracts of 2 acres in width, fronting on any such water, and running back the depth of 40 acres. ”

“ The selectmen usually walked the north lines only.
When the state domain, almost all dense forest, was first surveyed, the land was laid off in ranges, so-called, and tiers of lots. The various grants of land to persons for public services were also surveyed in a similar manner and the corners and lines established by means of stakes and stones, and of blazed trees. If a large rock happened to lie at the corner of a range or lot, the surveyor sometimes marked it with a drill. Such rocks made the best corners. ”

“ It then becomes the task of the government surveyor to measure off the land belonging to the entire community and to give to each village in one piece, if possible, the equivalent of the many parcels belonging to it heretofore. The difficulties of such a task are apparent at first sight. The quality of soil may be anything from very good to very bad. ”