io8 Rents, Wages, and Profits in Agriculture 



work. It may be noted that the same 

 method of keeping down poor - rates was 

 practised in the beginning of the eighteenth 

 century. The adoption of the union of 

 parishes for relief checked this evil, and 

 now the cottage accommodation is much 

 better and there is less overcrowding. 



The old open villages, with their over- 

 crowded and insanitary dwellings, were 

 also associated with the " gang " system. 

 Gangs of men, women, lads, girls, and 

 children, were formed by a gang - master 

 who contracted with a farmer to do 

 certain operations. He was very often a 

 sweater of the worst kind, paying the 

 lowest wages possible, and making them 

 really less by selling necessaries to the 

 members of the gang. These gangs were 

 worse than degrading to the women and 

 children concerned, and by the Agricultural 

 Gangs Act of 1867 children under eight 



