The Dust Bowl of the 1930s saw many farmers migrate to the Midwestern and southern plains and plow over 5 million acres of previously unfarmed land using new farming techniques. This led to overproduction of wheat which replaced the natural drought-resistant grasses, and when drought hit, the topsoil blew away in dust storms, leaving the land infertile and the farms unable to be farmed, contributing to the economic troubles of the Great Depression and leaving many people homeless and in debt.