Most land surveying of tracts of ordinary size is done by using transit-tape methods. For a large tract, however (such as a large government reservation), comers might be located by triangulation, or primary horizontal control might be by triangulation and secondary control by supplementary traversing. The precision used for land surveying varies directly with the value of the land and also with such circumstances as whether or not important structures will be erected adjacent to the property lines. Obviously, a tract in lower Manhattan, New York (where land may sell for more than $1 million per acre), would be surveyed with considerably higher precision than would a rural tract.

Again there are no hard-and-fast rules. However, the prescribed order of precision for surveying the boundaries of a naval station might require the following:

1. Plumb bobs used for alignment and for transferring chained distances to the ground