Just how big is 40 acres of land visually and what does 40 acres look like? If you’re considering buying a lot that consists of 40 acres, you might be wondering how to visualize that amount of space without having to deal with all sorts of calculations and numbers.
One acre is 43,560 square feet, but it’s hard to visualize what that will look like, especially once you consider that each lot is shaped differently.
If you compare 40 acres of land to certain items, such as tennis courts or football fields, it becomes a little easier to see that much land in your head.
After all, no one wants to get their calculator out and figure out a bunch of complicated calculations just to picture what their land is going to look like. And now, you don’t have to!
How Big Is 40 Acres Of Land Visually? (What Does 40 Acres Look Like?)
For now, let’s take a look at some comparisons so you can try to visualize in your head how big 40 acres truly is. Forty acres is the equivalent of:
- 2/5 the size of Vatican City, which is roughly 110 acres
- 1-4/5 times the size of Alcatraz, which is roughly 22 acres in size
- 4/5 the size of Grand Central Station, which is roughly 50 acres in size
- 1-1/2 times the size of Ellis Island, which covers about 27.4 acres
- 1-1/5 times the size of the Pentagon, which sits on roughly 34 acres
- 7/10 the size of Washington National Cathedral, which sits on approximately 57 acres
- Twice the size of Buckingham Palace, which sits on about 19 acres
In addition, 40 acres is roughly the size of 600 tennis courts, 720 average-sized houses, 52 football fields, and 6240 parking spaces. If you laid 5-inch potatoes in a line, you could line up roughly 63,360 of those potatoes on your 40-acre lot.
Forty acres is equal to 1,742,400 square feet, or 1/16 of a square mile, which consists of 640 acres. And if you made those 40 acres into a perfect square, it would have 1320 feet on each of the four sides.
What Can You Do with 40 Acres of Land?
If you are the proud owner of 40 acres of land, you might be wondering what you can do with it. There are actually numerous things you can do with that much land.
The following are not just suggestions for what you can do with your 40 acres, but they’ll also help you visualize what 40 acres might look like.
- Set up a Farm
If you’ve always wanted to “work the land” and grow things, now is your opportunity. With 40 acres, you can grow all sorts of crops, and it’s possible that you can get a contract with a company that wants you to grow things for them.
For instance, national produce companies pay local farmers to take care of chickens for them and then sell the chickens to the company once they get big enough. If you raise chickens, you can also sell their eggs and make a little extra money that way.
- Make and Sell Honey
Local honey is always a huge hit at farmers’ markets, and setting up a beehive and making your own honey costs a lot less than you think.
Yes, you will occasionally get stung, but the protective clothing and equipment you wear will prevent most injuries from happening in the first place.
And you’ll be surprised at how much people love honey that comes from a local source. Making honey is inexpensive and fun, and making a little money on the side never hurt anyone!
- Grow Things to Sell at Farmers’ Markets
With 40 acres of land, you can grow just about anything to sell at the local farmers’ market, including:
- Fruits and vegetables
- Herbs
- Fruits to make your own homemade jellies and jams
- Flowers
You can also cut, bundle, and sell firewood in the winter time because this is a product that everyone needs. Yet another suggestion is to raise cows and sell the milk. The possibilities are endless.
- Build Storage Units
Forty acres is more than enough to build either indoor or outdoor storage units. It may cost some money to get them erected and you may even need a loan from the bank, but this is one business that seems to never lack for customers.
If you live in a college town, you can rest assured that your units will be close to completely booked most of the time, and the same goes for living in a transient area where people are constantly moving in and out of the city. You just can’t go wrong with building storage units.
- Raise Goats and Sell the Cheese
This is a potentially very lucrative business because goat cheese is considered a health trend. Goat cheese is easier for the body to process, especially if you’re one of those people who is lactose-intolerant and can’t eat regular dairy products.
It also has less fat and calories than other types of cheese, and it contains tons of calcium. Once you learn the ins and outs of raising goats, the business becomes much easier, and you’ll always have tons of goat cheese to sell at farmers’ markets and other venues as well.
When you raise goats, you can also rent them out for yard maintenance and even use their milk to make lotions and soaps. Goats actually provide numerous opportunities to make a little extra money!
- Create a Dog Park
The good part about this “business” is that you won’t need the entire 40 acres to create the park, and it shouldn’t cost you a lot of money either.
Just check with local authorities to determine what type of permit or permission you’ll need, and you can make the park a very attractive one that dogs and their owners will love.
For the best results, the park should be free for anyone to visit; of course, you’ll have to check on liability insurance and work hard to keep the park as safe as possible for everyone.
- Raise Worms for Composting or for Bait
This is a fairly cheap business to get into, and since worms reproduce so quickly, you can start out with a small amount of worms and pretty soon, you’ll have more of them than you know what to do with.
They’ll eat almost anything and they are a very low-maintenance crop. You can keep them in plastic bins and they require very little day-to-day time commitments.
You can sell them to local bait shops or even to landfill companies because they can be buried in the landfills and eat all of the garbage there.
Conclusion
Having 40 acres of land is a dream come true for many people, and regardless of what you do to visualize that much land, it’s good to know that there are tons of things you can do with it.
And it doesn’t have to be just money-making ventures. You can use the land for hunting or growing fruits and vegetables for personal use.
When it comes to owning lots of land, the possibilities are endless. All you have to do is discover your passion, and 40 acres is more than enough to accommodate that passion, regardless of what it is.
