212 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
THE “ GANG SYSTEM” IN ENGLAND. 
Heaven knows we have misery and degradation and 
vice enough in this country, and if we had been ignorant 
of it, the foreign travellers who traverse it, have kindly 
and frequently brought the fact to our notice; and so in¬ 
tent have our English brethren been on this, that they 
seem to have overlooked the misery and degradation and 
vice existing on every side at home. Scarcely had the 
public recovered from the shock produced by the vile at- 
trocities revealed by the commissioned inquirer into the 
state of the laborers in the coal districts, and the unpa- 
ralelled misery of the manufacturing ones, when a new 
source of oppression and crime was revealed in that part 
of the Report of the Special Poor Law Commissioners 
which relates to the employment of women and children 
in agriculture, or what is called the Gang system of labor. 
We have room for only a brief notice of the subject here; 
and we only allude to it, to show the condition of the ag¬ 
ricultural laborer there, and enable the American tiller 
of the soil to compare the condition of his wife and chil¬ 
dren as well as his own, with those described. 
The gang system originated at Castle Acre in Norfolk, 
several years since, and has been gradually spreading, as 
poverty and misery compel the agricultural districts to 
adopt any course that will prevent absolute starvation. 
The parishes around Castle Acre were in the hands of 
two or three proprietors, and to avoid poor rater, these 
men allowed the cottages on their lands to fall to decay, 
and refused to build new ones. The proprietors of Cas¬ 
tle Acre on the contrary, kept up their cottages and ob¬ 
tained exorbitant rents by letting them to the poor labor- i 
ers from the adjoining parishes. As these parishes must 
have laborers, they resort to those collected around Cas¬ 
tle Acre, of w'hich there are some two or three hundred. 
To facilitate business between the employer and those 
wanting employ, a person called a “ gangsman,” is em¬ 
ployed as a middle man between the parties. The Re¬ 
port describes the operation of this system as follows: 
“Suppose a farmer in or near Castle Acre, wishes to 
have a particular piece of work done which will require 
a number of hands, he applies to a gang master, who 
contracts to do the work, and furnish the labor. The 
bargain is made with the gano; master, and he makes his 
bargain with the laborers. He accordingly gets together 
as many hands as he thinks sufficient, and sends ihem in 
a gang, under an overseer, to their place of work. If 
the work, as usually happens, is such that it can be done 
by women and children as well as men, the gang is in 
that case, composed of both sexes, and of all ages. They 
work together, the overseer taking care they are steady 
to their work, and checking any bad language or conduct. 
The overseer usually goes with them to their place of 
work, and returns with them when they have done for 
the day. One gangsman at Castle Acre has about one 
hundred persons in his employment, with four or five 
overseers.” 
The result of this system is easily seen, and are forci¬ 
bly detailed in the Report. The gang-master for in¬ 
stance, engages 50 hands to puli turneps, or harvest 
wheat, in a field 5 miles off. On reaching the place, the 
weather becomes unfavorable, they cannot work, and they 
return without receiving any thing. Children of six 
years old have to walk 5, 6, or 7 miles to their work at 
times, and if it rains, are compelled to walk back again. 
To children, such walks are worse than the work. The 
day, for the gang, is divided into four parts, and if a la¬ 
borer, man or child, fails, or rain stops him, before the 
part has passed, he gets nothing for it. One of the worst 
effects of the gang system is its moral influence on the 
laborers. The character of the employed is of no con¬ 
sequence to the gang-master, and hence, says the Report, 
“ all sorts of characters, male and female, are mixed up 
in these gangs. Idle and profligate persons whom no 
one would employ unless they could be kept under con¬ 
stant superintendance, naturally find a resource in these 
gangs. A large proportion of the females consist of 
grown up girls, of whom one of the overseers staled, 
that in consequence of ganging, seventy out of one hun¬ 
dred were very imprudent, or prostitutes.” As the pla¬ 
ces of work are frequently from six to ten miles distant. 
[the gangs are sent in carts or wagons, and during their 
jabsence which is sometimes several days, sleep in barns 
|or elsewhere, as they can, which will in part account for 
the gross immorality of this class of the laboring poor. 
! Another consequence results from this system. The 
whole laboring population, wherever it prevails, are in 
the power of the gang-master, who, if he is a “hard 
man,” and he has every temptation to be such, becomes a 
'perfect tyrant. Were he ever so favorably disposed, he 
|has little power to mitigate their condition; but he has 
ithe power to exact from them any amount of labor he 
pleases; frequently his condition is that of “a poor man 
jwho oppresseth the poor,” one of the most grinding and 
aggravated kinds of oppression. One of the most alarm- 
png features of the case is, that the gang system is 
spreading and increasing; a sure proof of the deepest con¬ 
dition of moral and physical degradation, a condition in 
which a man voluntarily consigns himself, his wife and 
children to a state of hopeless servitude for the miserable 
pittance of potatoes and bacon, that will keep soul and 
body together. Negro slavery is an evil for which God 
Will visit any nation; but here in the midst of a people 
boasting that whoever touches their soil is free, we find 
a deep and firmly rooted servitude, to which in its con¬ 
sequences, American slavery affords no parallel. That 
government which tolerates such a state of things, or 
which b> its lust of power has reduced its agricultural 
population to such a frightful condition, must expect that 
the day of retribution, dark and terrible, cannot be far 
distant. 
DAIRYING. 
Experiments are being made with glass milk pans In 
England. It is thought by some that they will be found 
very excellent articles. The price, it is said, will not 
be high, and it is supposed that they have an advantage 
on account of the purity of the metal, and their being 
no risk of any injurious action which may injure the 
cream or prevent it from rising. Cheap China has been 
recommended and sometimes tried for milk pans. It is 
thought by some that milk pans should be shallow. This 
[subject was discussed at a late agricultural meeting in 
• England. One man stated that he believed it had been 
demonstrated that the same measure of milk poured into 
a vessel allowing it to stand two inches deep, would cast 
nearly twice as much cream as it would do if its depth 
were eight inches. Now does the experience of dairy¬ 
men in this country agree wdththia? We should be glad 
to know. 
At the meeting above alluded to, Mr. Greaves stated 
that he had found in his own dairy that a piece of salt¬ 
petre about the size of a hazel-nut, dissolved in warm 
j water, and mixed with every gallon of new milk as soon 
as it is strained, not only caused the milk to cast its cream 
better, but had the effect of removing from the butter 
every disagreeable flavor arising from the herbage of 
particular pastures, such small addition to the milk, of so 
well known and simple saline substance, imparting to it 
a wholesome character, rather than otherwise, in a diet¬ 
etic point of view. 
We have seen saltpetre used in this way with good ef¬ 
fect. 
Another gentleman at this meeting spoke of the syplion 
for separating milk from cream. The syphons were 
made of block-tin, with a tube about a quarter of an inch 
bore. They are completely self-acting, merely requir¬ 
ing to be inserted in the milk and set at work, the stream 
continuing to flow by such decantation until the cream 
presented itself for admission into the lower orifice of 
the tube, when its greater body and less fluidity prevent¬ 
ed its free passage, and the syphon gradually stopped of Its 
own accord. This complete draining of the milk fr$Hi 
the cream, rendered the butter very superior in its keep 
ing properties. 
Sore Teats in Cows. —An old receipt for this iI3 
which the cow is heir to, is rubbing the parts affected ia 
molasses, and we have known it to be tried in many ca 
ses with success.— Bost. Cult. 
