When any owner of a government subdivision or a platted tract or lot which is within or without the corporate limits of any municipality shall divide the same into parcels for the purpose of transfer that cannot be described except by metes and bounds, he shall cause the parcels of land so divided to be platted into lots and have the lots numbered and a plat thereof recorded before any instrument of transfer of such divided parcels of land shall be recorded. If such plat cannot be made without an actual survey he shall have such lands surveyed and the plat thereof recorded. The provisions of this section do not apply to parcels subject to a contract with the United States secretary of agriculture pursuant to the United States Conservation Reserve Program, as established in Subtitle D of Title XII of the United States Food Security Act of 1985, as amended on January 25, 1988, and which parcel is being transferred to or from the South Dakota Building Authority.
SDCL 43-21-1