Linen was known in India, China, Egypt and Transcaucasia 4-5 thousand years before our era. The flax plant easily transitions into wild form. It shows itself as a wild plant in many countries, including southern Russia. It passed from Asia to the territory of Russia. At present, flax is cultivated in the hot places of Europe, Asia and North America and in North Africa. Some of these hypotheses indicate that the narrow-leaved flax reached the coasts of the Caspian and Black seas in the wild, starting from the territories of the Gulf states of Iran. Others suggest that the cultured linen first took its origin in the highlands of India. Here, archeological excavations provide information about the cultivation of flax plant 9 thousand years before our era. Some say that the first cultivation areas of flax were the Middle East, Caucasus (Azerbaijan), European and Asian countries. Based on the remains of linen obtained as a result of archaeological excavations conducted in these places, scientists say that it was planted in the Stone Age.

Cultivation of flax has been started in Russia since ancient times. In the III-V centuries, flax was cultivated in Yaroslavl and Kostroma regions of Russia. Already in the 10th century, cloth, yarn, fiber and oil produced from linen in Russia were sold not only to meet the country's own needs, but also to foreign countries. More than 60% of the cultivated area of linen is concentrated in the CIS countries. Russia, Ukraine and Belarus have more arable land. Poland, Romania, France, Czech Republic, Netherlands, etc. the cultivated area is also significant in the countries.

The cultivated area of the main fibrous flax in the world is 1.5 mln. more than one hectare, and that of oilseed is about 1 mln. is a hectare. Oilseed crops are more abundant in Argentina, USA, Canada and India. The cultivated area in Russia is 200,000 hectares. On average, the fiber yield of flax is 0.4 tons per hectare, but the potential is 1.6 and more. Herodotus, who is considered the "father of history", shows that in Colchis, linen products not only satisfy domestic demand, they were also exported to many Eastern and Western countries.

Herodotus notes that the ancient Scythians, who lived around the Dnieper and Dniester rivers, planted flax and hemp in addition to wheat, lentils, onions, and garlic, and wove excellent quality fabrics from them. These ideas of Herodotus are confirmed by the materials obtained as a result of archaeological excavations on the banks of the Dnieper River. They determined that in those times the peoples of today's Lithuania were also widely engaged in linen weaving. Arab traveler Ibn-Faldan in 901, when he was in the Volga and Ural regions, came across people walking in clothes made of cloth made of linen.[5]

Botanical description

The flax plant is an annual and perennial herbaceous plant belonging to the genus Linium L. of the family of plants, the division of flowering plants, the class of dicotyledons, the family of linaceae (Linaceae). According to various sources, it can be said that 100 to 200 types of linen are known in the world. At present, they have identified a species that is more productive due to the length of its fiber, quality, durability and oil-bearing capacity of its seeds on scientific grounds and made it into culture. This long fiber flax is called L. usitalissimum and is widely planted and cultivated in most countries. At present, up to five varieties of it have been obtained. Of these, long fiber or thread L. elongata; We can show L. intermedia, which is machine thread or intermediate, curly or oily L. brevimulicaulina, irito-seeded L. macrospermum and bending semi-hibernating L. prostrata.

Flax farming is developed to obtain fiber and oil. Long-fiber flax is used for fiber purposes, and curly or oily flax (Linum usitatissimum ssp. humile (Mill.) Czernom.) is used for oil purposes.