Land included in an exempt homestead outside a municipality and unplatted land included in an exempt homestead in a municipality shall consist, if possible, of regular legal subdivisions of a section or sections, and tracts of less than forty (40) acres shall not be included unless necessary, and the homestead shall include all adjoining land in the same section as the dwelling before land is included in another section; and in the case of land not surveyed according to the plan of the government surveys, the land shall, as nearly as possible, be defined in straight lines, and the area be, as nearly as practicable, in the form of a square or rectangle, or shall observe such boundaries as streams, bodies of water, railroads or public roads. In all cases, the land shall be described in the application sufficiently to clearly locate and identify the same; also the number of acres in each tract shall be stated, whether shown on the assessment roll or not.