10 square chains pays homage to my original blog fourthreefivesixzero.com or 43560 for short. Being the thrifty person I am I chose the longer written form as 43560.com was a premium address with a price tag I was unwilling to pay particularly for a site likely only read by my mother, occasionally by my wife, and on my best days by a handful of other family members. Even then my wife will tell you she had a time remembering the address. So I needed to shorten the name, make it more memorable, subject to fewer mistyped addresses and honestly it needed updating. So changes were needed. Yet I had a reason for that original slightly obtuse name.

Aside from few older farmers, the few survey historians, the few older crossword experts, and the fewer still readers of this page the collection of people that know the one thing these two names hold in common will not make a large audience.

A chain is a survey length 66 feet long, 10 times that length is 1 rod or 660 feet. 1 chain by 1 rod is 10 square chains and is an area 66 feet by 660 feet or 43560 square feet, an acre as measured in the United States. For those of you unfamiliar with this measurement a full football field including end zones is about 1.32 acres. If you are a basketball fan it takes about 12 basketball courts to equal an acre. The fair territory at Kaufman Stadium (Royals home field) covers 2.63 acres and is the second largest field in major league baseball.

Why this reference? First an acre is 43560 square feet of land, no matter the shape. It can be rectangular, square, round or any geometric shape but today’s acres are all the same in area, but not always so. Early definitions of an acre were the “amount of land one man behind one ox could till in one day”.  Many countries in Europe used different sizes to represent an acre. Worse still, in Germany different states had different sized acres. Proving that opinions about the amount of work one could accomplished in one day varied from place to place. Maybe in some areas they just started early and stayed late.   

 I had a supervisor that said to me one time “David, I am not the smartest person in our business, but I make up for it by coming in early and staying late”. He also taught me that small things can make a difference. Looking back I think he was smarter than he gave himself credit and his acre had to be a little bigger.

Modern international measurement standards agree that that an acre is 4840 square yards. That’s the rub, not everyone can agree on how long a foot should be, which we know it takes three to make a yard. …  in 1958 the US agreed that an international yard was .9144 meters… but we have been doing surveys in this country for a few hundred years, titles, abstracts, and land measurements are based on a U.S. survey foot. Even with international efforts to standardize measurements there is .016 square meter difference between an international acre and an acre in the US.  That’s about a 5 inch by 5 inch difference.

It is this land measurement for which I have chosen to title this site.  “Four Three Five Six Zero” now “10squarechains” think of it as a day’s work and it is this small 25 square inch of difference that we dedicate this effort, this work.

This site is a tribute to the layperson, the working man or woman working their oddly shaped piece of the world. Family, work, faith, home, long days or shorter ones in many ways they are all equal, just different shaped. We all share a common wish, that of making our acre better no matter the exact size. My desire is this site, any future service, or product we offer; will bring enjoyment, is thought provoking, and provides you something that lightens your work or enhances your acre no matter its shape.