Flax Growing, Institute of

Flax Growing, Institute of

 

(full name, All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Flax Growing [VNIIL]), organized in 1930 in Moscow, it had its origin in the Flax Testing Station of the K. A. Timiriazev Moscow Agricultural Academy. In 1931 it was moved to Torzhok. The institute is the center of scientific work with common flax in the USSR.

As of 1972 the institute had divisions of plant breeding and seed raising; agricultural techniques and agricultural chemistry; plant protection; mechanization; technology of initial processing; economics and organization; and scientific-technical information, invention activity, and patenting. It also had an experimental farm of 3,200 hectares. The institute works out and improves technology for the raising, harvesting, and initial processing of common flax and methods of breeding it; high-yield varieties that are resistant to lodging (falling down) and diseases are being developed.

As of 1973 the following varieties of common flax developed by the institute had been regionalized: 1-9, Svetoch, 1288/12, 806/3 (with the K. A. Timiriazev Moscow Agricultural Academy), VNIIL-11, Tvertsa, and VNIIL-17 and the red clover varieties Trudovik and VNIIL-4586. The institute has graduate study in residence and by extension. It has published Trudy (Works) since 1935. In 1967 the institute was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.