On the matter of unbalanced sex ratios, the topic of my yesterday post, a reader reminds me that this has sometimes been a feature of life in these United States.

Indeed it has. According to Prof. Courtwright, the number of males per 100 females in 1870 California was 166. In Nevada it was 320, and in Idaho a sensational 433.

(These are of course overall sex ratios for the population at large, not sex ratios at birth.)