SURVEYING FOR THE HOMESTEAD

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Precise land surveys depend on three fundamentals:

[1] the determination of distances,
[2] the determination of elevation, and
[3] the measurement of angles. Which of the three operations you perform first or at all depends on the particular surveying problem at hand. In the following sections I'll describe all three fundamentals of surveying as they might be carried out on the homestead. The more complex instruments needed for such work can be borrowed or rented from colleges, state agriculture departments, or blueprint companies (which supply professional surveyors). Other items can be bought inexpensively or improvised at home.

THE MEASUREMENT OF DISTANCE

To determine distances accurately when fencing, for example, or laying out garden lots of equal area you'll need the following equipment:

[1] A set of 11 chaining pins. These can be made from coat hanger wire (see Fig. 1).
[2] A 100 foot steel or metallic woven tape. George Washington did his surveying with a chain probably, a 66 foot Gunter's chain, like the one shown in Fig. 2 and the modern version (Fig. 3) is, accordingly, called a steel chaining tape. You might substitute 100 feet of rope marked off in feet, with the first foot divided into tenths. Be precise!
[3] Two range poles (any. stick about seven feet long will do).
[4] A plumb bob on a string (Fig. 3).
[5] Pencil and field notebook (found at college bookstores and blueprint companies) to record your notes. As an alternative, use two pieces of lined paper prepared as shown in Fig. 4 (both pages have about 25 lines). The first page should be headed with a legal description of the land to be surveyed, and its six columns used to record numerical data such as distances between points, elevations from range pole readings, and angles turned between points on the transit. The top of the second page bears the names of the persons doing the surveying, the date, and a note on the weather. The rest of the sheet is used for illustration. A sketch map should be included to give an aerial view of the tract, with arrows indicating north and south and labels showing points, fences, roads, and other features.

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