File: cover12.xls The file contains perennial grass basal cover and shrub foliar cover data collected for USFS Study FSRM 1706-12. A copy of the Study Plan may be downloaded from the web site. Measurements were taken on 20 randomly located permanent 100-ft. line transects in each of five pastures. The pastures had been grazed yearlong by cow-calf herds since 1915; utilization ranged from 47-60%. Two changes in grazing management were instituted at the start of the study period: 1) The utilization objective was lowered to 40%, and 2) Summer deferment (July-Sept) in alternate years began in 1958 in two pastures and in 1959 in the other two. Pasture 9 continued to be grazed yearlong and was measured in 1958 and 1963-1966 for comparative purposes. Data from pasture 9 were not included in published analyses. Mesquites (Prosopis velutina) in pastures 1 and 7 were killed with diesel oil between 1954 and 1957. Mesquites in pastures 8, 9, and 10 were left untreated. Cover was measured annually in late summer from 1957-1966 (except 1960) in units of 0.01 ft. Perennial grass was recorded as basal intercept; i.e., length of live root crown portion of tuft at ground level. Shrub cover was recorded as the entire live crown intercept excluding conspicuous openings or areas of dead crown. Taxa were recorded separately to the species level in most cases and sometimes to the genus level only. The OTHERPG code refers to unidentified perennial grass species; OTHSHRUB to unidentified shrub species. Sources of data were the original field data sheets except: Sources for pasture 1 in 1961-1966 were handwritten summaries that had been compiled from the field data sheets. A value of -9999 in a field means that no data were available because a reading was not made for that date. cov12notes.txt 26 October 2001