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AGRICULTURAL GANGS

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 388 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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AGRICULTURAL GANGS , See also:

groups of See also:women, girls and boys organized by an See also:independent gang-See also:master, under whose super-See also:vision they execute agricultural piece-See also:work for farmers in certain parts of See also:England. They are sometimes called " public gangs " to distinguish them from " private gangs " consisting of workers engaged by the See also:farmer himself, and undertaking work solely for him, under his own supervision or under that of one of his men. The See also:system was for See also:long prevalent in the counties of See also:Cambridge-See also:shire, See also:Huntingdonshire, See also:Lincolnshire, See also:Nottinghamshire, See also:Norfolk and See also:Suffolk, and is still to be found in a much modified See also:form in the fen See also:district. The practice See also:dates from the latter years of the reign of See also:George III., when the See also:low-lying, marshy lands surrounding the See also:basin of the See also:Wash were being rapidly drained and converted into See also:rich alluvial districts. The unreformed See also:condition of the poor-See also:law, under which the support of the poor See also:fell upon each individual See also:parish, instead of a See also:union of parishes, made landlords reluctant to erect cottages on the reclaimed See also:land for the benefit of their tenants. Labour had to be obtained for the cultivation of these new lands, and that of women, girls and boys, being cheaper than the labour of men, was consequently very largely employed. The tendency to moral and See also:physical ruin which resulted from this nomadic See also:life was so See also:great that an inquiry into the condition of agricultural See also:child-labour was included in the reference to the See also:commission on child-labour appointed in 1862, and the results were so startling that the Agricultural Gangs See also:Act was passed in 1867, forbidding the employment of any child under eight years old, and of any See also:female under a male gang-master unless a female licensed to act as gang-See also:mistress were also 1 See also:Alexander, died 1506; Johann, for. ,600; Wolfgang Christoph, for. 163o; and George See also:Ludwig, 1643-1676. See also:present. Gang-masters must be licensed by two justices, and may not hold a liquor license. The distance to be traversed on See also:foot is fixed by the justices, and the licenses must be renewed every six months.

Later legislation made more stringent the regulations under which See also:

children are employed in agricultural gangs. By the Elementary See also:Education Act 1876, repealing and re-enacting the See also:principal provisions of the Agricultural (Children) Act 1873, no child shall be employed under the See also:age of eleven years, and none between eleven years and thirteen years before the child has obtained a certificate of having reached the See also:standard of education fixed by a by-law in force in the district.

End of Article: AGRICULTURAL GANGS

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