GANGS, AGRICULTURAL. A name applied to groups of women, girls, and boys brought to gether for labor in the fen districts of England, or the low tracts south of the Wash in the coun ties of Lincoln, Cambridge, Norfolk. Suffolk. and Rutland. Not long ago this part of the country was a marsh; but since dikes and canals have been constructed to drain it, it has become one of the most fertile districts of England. Instead of erecting houses on this land to be used as 110111e8 by farming tenants, the landlords escaped the exactions of the poor laws by employing laborers from the villages on the highlands near by. As women, girls, and boys worked cheaper than men, they were exclusively employed to the number of 27,000. Near the close of the session of 1866-67 an act was passed regulating agricultural gangs. It provided that no woman or child should be employed in the same gang with men or boys, and that no woman or girl was to be employed under a male gang-master, unless a woman licensed to act as superintendent was also present with the gang. The effect of
this act was most salutary. A commission was appointed in 1867 to inquire into the employ ment of women and children in agriculture, to investigate how far the principles of the factory acts could be applied to agriculture, with the special view of securing the better education of the children. On August 5, 1873, was passed the Agricultural Children Bill, which provided that no child should be employed under the age of eight; none between the age of eight and ten who had not a certificate showing 250 days at tendance at school the previous year; and none between the ages of ten and thirteen who could not produce a certificate showing 150 days' at tendance.