 When the estate owners realised they could make more money from sheep farming than from the indigenous small farmers, wholesale Clearances became commonplace.Four hundred people emigrated from Islay in 1863 alone, some for purely economic reasons, but many others having been forced off the land their predecessors had farmed for centuries.In 1891 the census recorded only 7,375 citizens, with many evictees making new homes in Canada, the United States and elsewhere.