Two cemented plots experiments were carried out during the winter seasons of 2012/2013 and 2013/2014, Soil Salinity Laboratory, Alexandria, Egypt, to study the effect of three levels of salicylic acid (SA) (0, 50, 100 ppm) and three rates of nitrogen fertilizer (75, 100, 125 kg N/feddan) on yield and yield components of wheat (Sakha 93). The experimental design was split plot with four replicates. The results indicated that increasing nitrogen fertilizer rates resulted in significant increase in plant height (cm), number of grain/spike, number of spikes/m 2 , 1000 grain weight (gm), grain yield (gm/plot), straw yield (gm/plot), and biological yield (gm/plot). Increasing salicylic acid rates resulted in significant increase in all the previous characters, in addition to grain weight/spike (gm). The interactions had no significant effect on the studied characters. The path analysis revealed that 1000 grain weight was the most important character with direct effect of 0.54 followed by number of spikes/m 2 with direct effect of 0.33 followed by number of grain/spike with direct effect of 0.16.

Background: One of the important by-products is sesame seed meal; it is a by-product of sesame seed pressing. Sesame oil cake or meal is a relatively good source of crude protein which can replace part of basic ingredients in diets such as soybean. Method: Fifteen growing male Barki lambs aged 5-6 months (18.50 ± 0.98 kg) were used to investigate the influence of replacing soybean meal (SBM) that incorporated (16% of control ration) sesame meal (SM) at 50% or 100% on feed and water intakes, nutrient digestibility, growth performance, rumen parameters, and economic evaluation. Lambs received one of the three tested complete feed mixtures that contained 16% SBM (R 1), replaced 50% of SBM with SM (R 2), contained (8% SBM + 8% SM) or completely replaced 100% of SBM with SM (R 3) and contained 16% SM. Results: Dietary treatments had no significant effect on all nutrient digestibility and total digestible nutrients value, meanwhile it decreased (P < 0.05) their contents of digestable crud protine when SBM was completely replaced by SM. Average daily gain (ADG) increased (P < 0.05) while increasing the level of replacement SBM by SM. Feed conversion expressed as g. gain improved (P < 0.05) with the increasing level of inclusion SM in the rations. Ruminal pH values increased (P < 0.05), meanwhile, values of NH 3-N concentration insignificantly decreased; however, values of total volatile fatty acid concentration insignificantly increased when SBM was replaced at half or completely by SM. Economical efficiency improved by 147.9% and 163.5% for R 2 and R 3 compared to control (R 1). Conclusion: It can be mentioned that SM is a good source of protein and can be successfully used as an unconventional source in growing lamb rations without causing any deleterious effect on their performance, digestibility, and ruminal fermentation while realizing a decrease in feed cost with improving economic efficiency, so it can incorporate SM in sheep rations to improve profitability or net revenue and decrease feed cost/kg gain.

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Background: Two field experiments were carried out in Researches and Production Station of National Research Centre, Al-Nubaria District, Al Behaira Governorate, Egypt. To study the effect of indole acetic acid (IAA) and /or gibberellic acid (GA 3) on growth, photosynthetic pigments, yield, and chemical composition of mungbean seeds, different concentrations of IAA and/or GA 3 were used. Results: Results indicated that all treatments caused significant increases in morphological criteria, biochemical parameters, and yield of mungbean plants. IAA or GA 3 with 50 mg/l concentration recorded the best values growth photosynthetic pigments, as well as, endogenous auxins, GA 3 , and cytokinins. Interaction of IAA 50 mg/l + GA 3 50 mg/l gave the most effective treatment. The superiority of treatment IAA 50 mg/l, GA 3 50 mg/l, and interaction of IAA 50 mg/l + GA 3 50 mg/l recorded the same trend due to yield and yield components in characters' plant height, pods no./plant, pods weight/plant, seeds no./pod, seed yield, straw yield, biological yield, total carbohydrates, protein in seeds (%), and N in seeds (%). Conclusion: It could be concluded that foliar spray of 50 mg/l IAA + 50 mg/l GA 3 was the most effective treatment on increasing growth and yield of mungbean.

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