A field experiment was carried out to study the influence of sowing times on yield and yield components of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.).

The responses of four wheat "Triticum aestivum L[# var! ieties to soil moisture were determined by measuring plant parameters such as relative leaf water content "RLWC# and the chlorophyll\ proline and sugar contents of the leaf over two seasons[ Two levels of irrigation treatments were adopted] irrigated and rainfed[ The rain! fed plants had consistently higher amounts of proline and sugar but lower RLWC and chlorophyll content[ As drought intensi_ed\ di}erences between the irrigated and the rainfed plants with respect to all of these characters increased[ The RLWC values of the irrigated plants were signi_cantly higher in the morning but lower values were found at noon\ showing some recovery in the afternoon[

A field experiment was conducted to study the influence of soil moisture on growth, water use and yield of mustard {Brassica juncea L. cv. Rai S). Two soil moisture regimes were rainfed and irrigated at 10 days inten^al throughout the growing season. The total amount of water received as irrigation was 110 mm and as rainfall was 15 mm. Total dry matter per unit ground area, leaf area index (LAI), crop growth rate (CGR) and net assimilation rate (NAR) were increased and leaf area ratio (LAR) and specific leaf area (SLA) were decreased by irrigation. Chlorophyll content and relative leaf water content (RLWC) were increased by irrigation, but proline content was greater in the rainfed crop at both the flowering and pod-filling stages. Time taken to first flowering, duration of flowering, number of seeds/pod and har\-est index were unaffected by irrigation. Plant height at harvest, number of pods/plant, seed yield and oil content of seeds were increased and 1000-seed weight was decreased by irrigation. The consumptive use of water increased with an increase in water supply, but the water use efficiency (WUE) was decreased.

The experiment was carried out at Regional Agricultural Research Station, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), Jessore to evaluate the performance of different varieties of hybrid maize under intercropping systems with groundnut in rabi seasons to find out the suitable intercropping system in increasing crop productivity and profitability of consecutive two years (2004 and 2005). Four sole crops of hybrid maize varieties (BHM-1, BHM-3, Pacific-11 and Pacific-984), one sole crop of groundnut (var. Jhingabadam) and eight intercropping systems of maize + groundnut under two planting methods viz., normal and paired row made 13 treatments were used. Treatments were arranged in a randomized complete block design with four replications. Among the intercropped treatments, four rows groundnut in between paired rows of hybrid maize var. Pacific-11 showed higher maize equivalent yield (13.56 t/ha in 2003-04 and 15.34 t/ha in 2004-05), groundnut equivalent yield (4.34 t/ha in 2003-04 and 4.91 t/ha in 2004-05), land equivalent ratio (1.54 in 2003-04 and 1.66 in 2004-05) as compared to other treatments. Key Words: Hybrid maize varieties; intercropping systems; groundnut. DOI: 10.3329/bjar.v34i4.5835Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 34(4) : 585-595, December 2009