Excerpts from the report: Cotton ginning was once chiefly a farm operation, but, since the turn of the century, it has been streamlined into a highly specialized commercial activity. Facilities for the ginning of cotton in the United States make up an important industry, and charges paid for ginning services are a big item of cost to cotton growers. Growers, on the average, paid more than 160 million dollars annually for ginning services during the period 1947-48 to 1954-55. Currently, the total investment in ginning facilities is in the neighborhood of 400 million dollars.