jim, i bought 2 CDs of Scottish history from SCRAN and I learned that because of mechanization in the mid 1850s, on farms fewer men were men were needed...and the scots didn't own their land they rented. as lease length grew shorter, and it was risky to put any profits into improvements if you didn't own the land, but if you could loose the land with any failed harvest, or illness/family hardship/lowland clearances...... Each time a son wanted to marry he would have to look for land to rent but none near his parent was available and their land couldn't be subdivided hand loom weavers were forced out by power looms (mechanization) better to emigrate to a place like Canada....where they could own lands and old skills were needed..... mechanization was needed only in the coastal cities in the U.S., South Africa and Australia so skilled workers went there and others headed for the frontier regions. The CDs taught me more about living conditions in an hour than several books on history...I highly recomend them. Killin is very pretty, my great grandmother Annie McPhail was born there... I bought a nice book on the village history while there http://www.scran.ac.uk/ Mary