Two field experiments were conducted at Nubaria Agric. Res. Station during 2003 and 2004 seasons. The objective of this investigation aimed to study the effect of irrigation intervals (irrigation every 14 and 28 days) and six intercropping patterns: (1) Pure stand of soybean (sown in hills 10 cm distance apart on each side of the ridge and thinned at two plants/hill). (2) Pure stand of sunflower (sown in hills 30 cm distance on side of the ridge and thinned at one plant/hill). (3) Soybean sown on one side of the ridge and sunflower sown on the other side of the ridge (100% soybean+100% sunflower). (4) Soybean sown in 2:2 rows with sunflower. (5) Soybean sown in 2:4 rows with sunflower. (6) Soybean sown in 4:2 rows with sunflower on yield and its components of both crops, as well as the competitive relationships. A split plot in complete randomize design with four replicates was used. The results indicated that Irrigation intervals had significant effects on soybean plant height, number of pods/plant, seed yield/fad. and seed oil percentage of soybean plants. Intercropping patterns had significant effects on all studied traits, except oil and protein content percentages in the two seasons. The highest seed yield/fad. was obtained by irrigation every 14 days and sowing soybean in pure stand. Pure stand gave higher seed yield of soybean than that of all intercropping patterns. Irrigation intervals had significant effects on sunflower plant height, number of leaves/plant, seed yield/plant and seed yield/fad. of sunflower plants in the two seasons. Also, intercropping patterns had significant effects on all studied traits in the two seasons. Pure stand of sunflower gave higher seed yield/fad. than all intercropping patterns. The highest seed yields of sunflower and soybean were obtained by irrigation every 14 days and pure stands in the two seasons. The results indicated that land equivalent ratios (LER) of soybean and sunflower values were more than one. Moreover, it could be concluded that soybean and sunflower sown at pure stands with irrigation every 14 days can be recommended for raising soybean and sunflower productivity as compared with all intercropping patterns under the condition of Nubaria region. Also, sunflower was always the dominant crop, whereas soybean was dominated.

This investigation was carried out to evaluate the chemical characteristics of new eight sweet potato varieties namely, CEMSA 74-228, SANTO AMARA, NC 1525 and KEMB 37 (creamy flesh) and JAPON TRESMESINO, LO 323, TAINUNG 64 and BEAUREGARD (yellow flesh ), and study their suitability for processing. The obtained re-sults reveal that SANTO AMARA and KEMB37 varieties were the best ones having the highest content of chemical constituents compared with those of the other studied creamy flesh sweet pota-to varieties. Moreover, 140 days from planting was the best harvesting time that achieved the highest chemical characteristics. All selected creamy sweet potato varieties had adequate miner-als contents especially, KEMB 37 followed by NC 1525 and CEMSA 74-228 then SANTO AMARA varieties that could be considered good sources of minerals for human nutrition. Yellow flesh sweet potatoes have been recognized as valuable sources of carbohydrates, protein, dietary fibers and could be considered as good sources of both vitamin C and total carotenoids. Moreover, TAINUNG 64 and LO 323 were found to be good sources of β-carotene (pro- vitamin A). The more suitable har-vesting time for yellow sweet potato varieties, which recorded the highest levels of essential ele-ments, was 140 days from planting. On the other hand, TAINUNG 64 variety could be considered the best one compared to the other examined vari-ties. The most suitable varieties that having good quality attributes for processing were SANTO AMARA and KEMB 37 as creamy flesh and TAINUNG 64 and BEAUREGARD as yellow flesh sweet potato varieties. Moreover, these va-rieties could be successfully used in the produc-tion of new and untraditional sweet potato prod-ucts.

Twenty dairy cows belonged to four small holder were put under study, to investigate the efficiency of using scavenger chicken (baladi) as biological control of ticks and their borne diseases. The cows were divided to two groups first and second, they were infested with ticks, Laboratory diagnosis for babesia was carried out. All samples showed positive reaction.Cloxon 2.5 gm/kg/ body weight (BW) was used to treat the cows of the two groups with the presence of ticks, and all cases were recovered. Gamatox was used to control the ticks on the cows in the first group, while scavenger chicken (5 baladi chicken in each farm), were used to control ticks in the second two farms. After seven days no tick was observed on the cows in the second group. It also showed negative result for babesia test. On the other hand, nymphs were noticed on the cows of the first group. The research recom-mended to use scavenger chicken to terminate the life cycle of ticks and to get rid of its pathogenic diseases in small scale dairy farms.

Natural antioxidants have gained considerable interest in recent years for their role in preventing the auto oxidation of fats, oils and fat containing food products. In this study, six spices containing natural antioxidants were evaluated for their re-tarding fat oxidation compared to butylated hy-droxyl toluene (BHT). The yield obtained from water extract of the tested spices ranged between 20% and 50 %. Carob gave the highest yield fol-lowed by anise and cinnamon, then caraway and fennel, while ginger gave the lowest yield .The free radical scavenging activities measured by 2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) were 88.08%, 81.69%, 79.62% , 78.93% , 73.06% , and 71.50 % for cinnamon, anise, carob, caraway ginger, and fennel, respectively at concentration of 2250 μg/ml. Cinnamon showed higher antioxidant ac-tivity on linoleic acid oxidation than BHT fol-lowed by anise, carob and ginger. While, fennel and caraway recorded closely antioxidant activity to that of BHT at low concentration of 100 μg/ml. Total phenolic content of the tested spices varied ranging from 11.19 to 22.95 mg as gallic acid / gm dry extract in carob and caraway, respectively. Depending upon the sensory evaluation of crois-sant containing different levels of tested spices, a concentration of 1.5% of anise, caraway fennel and cinnamon was chosen, while the chosen con-centration of ginger was 2.5% and carob was 1% for testing their effectiveness against oxidation of lipid in croissant. However, a concentration of 2% of anise, fennel, ginger and carob was chosen while, the chosen concentration of caraway and cinnamon was 1% for testing their effectiveness against oxidation of lipid in filling cream. Addi-tion of tested spices gave an excellent antioxidant effect on croissant and filling cream compared with the effect of BHT. The increase in both per-oxide and acid values after 14 and 28 days respec-tively were lower than of control and BHT. Carob, ginger, caraway and cinnamon were more effec-tive in controlling lipid oxidation during storage. In conclusion addition of tested spices as sources of effective natural antioxidants retarded lipid oxi-dation and maintain the quality of croissant and filling cream during storage.

The present work aimed to investigate the stimulating and attractive effects of five volatile oils on honey bee colonies food consumption. These oils were added to sugar syrup and pollen substitutes. The consumption of sugar syrup and percentage of dead bees in caged honeybee work-ers were determined. Multi-choice test inside the honey bee colonies was carried out to determine the food consumption rate from different pollen substitutes. Positive effect was recorded by adding Coriander oil 0.03% followed by Fennel 0.15% and Spearmint oils 0.03% while nigella oil showed a repellent effect on honey bee workers. The mor-tality percentage was very low with no significant differences between treatments. Results indicated that addition of 5% pollen grains and three volatile oils increased significantly pollen substitute’s con-sumption. The highest consumption rate was rec-orded with coriander oil 0.03%. Results obtained indicated that the consumption of diets that con-tain Coriander, Fennel, and Spearmint volatile oils was more successful than control.

A pot experiment was carried out in summer season of 2006 to evaluate the different concentrations effect of foliar application of methanol and pink pigmented facultative methelotrophic bacteria (PPFM) on some growth parameters and yield of cotton plant. Data showed that, the highest growth rate value was obtained with PPFM isolates from wheat with 1% methanol. The growth rate of PPFM isolates decreased with increasing the methanol concentration. Foliar applications with 20% methanol with PPFM 3 or 4 spraying times gave the significantly highest values of cotton growth and yield parameters. Such two potent treatments increased  leaf area index (LAI) by 51.4 and 55.8 %; number of fruiting branches / plant by 53.1 and 58.0 %; number of total bolls / plant by 38.1 and 43.0 %; seed cotton weight / boll by 37.1 and 48.2 % and seed cotton yield / plant by 46.1 and 50.8, respectively than the control.

Soil fertility management is a key issue for sustaining agricultural production in dry lands. Organic resources are important for nutrient avail-ability and maintenance of soil organic matter. Sustaining fertility of arid soils necessitates in-creasing inputs of organic residues. Two experi-ments with water hyacinth were carried out to monitor (in the first; field study with litter bags) decomposition and changes in N, P, K, Ca and Mg as influenced by method of application where, in the second (greenhouse study) short-term effect on some properties of a sandy soil and early estab-lishment of fodder sorghum (Sorghum bicolor). Results of the first experiment showed that resi-dues incorporated in the top 0-30cm soil depth had significantly (P≤0.01) increased loss of dry matter weight compared to surface application. Decom-position rate constants of surface and sub-surface application were 0.029% week-1 and 0.041% week-1, respectively. Potassium was the fastest nutrient released with 50% loss attained after the 2nd and 6th week from incorporation and surface application, respectively. Nitrogen, P, Ca, and Mg releases from water hyacinth incorporated in the sub-soil were significantly (P≤ range from 0.0001 to 0.008) high compared to surface application. Nutrients loss was in the order of K =Mg > P > N > Ca. However, results of the second experi-ment showed that incorporation of water hyacinth residues significantly (P ≤ 0.001) decreased pH (by about 27%) and hydraulic conductivity (by 40-46%). Also, cation exchange capacity and organic C were significantly increased by about 23 and 100%, respectively. The study concluded that ap-plication of water hyacinth could be one of the good alternatives for improving quality of arid soils.

Laboratory experiments were carried out to de-termine the bioeffects of an isolate of ento-mopthogenic fungi Beauveria bassiana (Bals.) and Biofly a commercial product of B. bassiana, on the 1st instar larvae of mushroom fly, Bradysia ocellaris (coms). The bioactivity of B. bassiana was tested, using five concentrations of B. bassi-ana on some biological criteria of the mushroom fly, by calculating LC50 values after three and sev-en days of treatment. Results indicated that the mortality rates percentage increased with the in-crease of the concentrations used and the period after treatment. The highest percentage of mortali-ty occurred within the first seven days following treatment. Statistical analysis of the obtained lar-val-pupal and adults period and weight revealed significant differences between treated and non-treated insects.

A total of 3108 records on conception rate (CR) and 2123 on litter size (LS) were used in this study. CR data represented 1600 Damascus (D) does, 201 Barki (BR) does, 229 Baladi (BL) does and 1070 crossbred does between D and each of BR and BL, while LS represented  1070 D does, 128 BR does, 145 BL does and 775 crossbred does.  These records were used to study the effect of crossing and other fixed effects and to estimate heritability of these two traits in the Damascus goats. Statistical models included varying combination of the fixed effects of station, genotypes within station, year of mating, month of mating, and parity and the random effect of animal nested within station, genotype, year of mating   and month of mating. Variance and covariance components for Damascus data were estimated through the Gibbs Sampling technique using a model that included the fixed effects of station, year and month of mating and parity, and the random effects of doe additive genetics and permanent environmental. CR mean in different analyses ranged from 0.39 to 0.63. Damascus, with a range of CR of 0.48 to 0.63, surpassed both local breeds (ranging from 0.33 to 0.58) and was close to the crossbreds that ranged between 0.34 and 0.68.  LS mean ranged from 1.26 to 1.50 in different analyses. Baladi scored the highest in LS (1.49). Damascus ranged from 1.15 to 1.24 in different locations. LS ranged from 1.37 to 1.67 for crossbreds. For both traits there was no clear evidence of the merit of Damascus goats or their crosses over the Barki and Baladi goats. More data taken under sound herd management are needed to clarify the utility of the Damascus and its crosses. Heritability estimates+SE for CR and LT in Damascus goats were 0.03 ± 0.003 and 0.04 ± 0.003, respectively.

Day by day increase the importance of using the natural food additives. Hence in this study, the phenolic extracted from basil leaves, spearmint leaves and fennel seeds, as natural antioxidants, were added at concentrations 200, 400 and 600 ppm from fat weight using in biscuit production. Biscuit was stored at room temperature for 8 months. Induction period was measured by Rancimat apparatus. Total phenolic and phenolic acids were determined. Peroxide value, acid value, thiobarbituric acid and refractive index were measured during storage. Antimicrobial activity of phenolic extraction were examined after 8 months. Sensory evaluation was measured directly after baking. The results showed that total phenolic content in basil leaves, spearmint leaves and fen-nel seeds were 3.97, 1.91 and 1.53 mg/g as caffeic acid equivalents respectively. Five phenolic acids were found in both basil leaves and spearmint leaves, while four phenolic acids were found in fennel seeds as determined by using HPLC. Rancimat results showed that induction period for phenolic herbs could be ranked as follow: basil leaves > spearmint leaves > fennel seeds. The re-sults elucidated that the best concentration from natural additives as antioxidants activity were 400 and 600 ppm compared with BHT. The results revealed that with increasing the concentration of natural antioxidants increased, the more peroxide value, acid value, thiobarbituric acid and refractive index were decreased. Total bacterial count and (yeast & mold) count were decreased with increas-ing the concentration phenolic additives. Sensory evaluation indicated that addition of different anti-oxidants showed no significant differences be-tween control and biscuit samples