Texas, along with the original thirteen states and several others in the Southwest which were originally deeded with Spanish land grants, does not use the Public Land Survey System[1] (also known as the Section Township Range and the Jeffersonian System).
The most important of these is the vara, which, while ambiguous in the past, was legally established to be exactly 33+1⁄3 inches (846.67 mm) long in June 1919.
These are Spanish grants, surveyed on the "metes and bounds" system of measurement, and are of irregular shape and size.
Townships and sections, only found in southern Texas, follow the same style as the Public Land Survey System but do not include ranges.
A headright of this much land was granted to "all persons [heads of families] except Africans and their descendants and Indians living in Texas on the day of the declaration of independence."