CREAM FROM THE MACHINE. 157 



Milk contains from eighty-eight to ninety per cent of 

 water. A dish of water set in any room, I don't care how 

 clean and nice it may be, will become more or less brackish, 

 and be more or less affected by the atmosphere ; and I main- 

 tain, for that reason, that this centrifugal machine produces 

 a much better article of milk, although there is no cream in 

 it. By actual experiment, I gain about six per cent over 

 any other method of setting that I have tried, and I have 

 tried them all, though not as carefully as I wish to do. I 

 get six per cent more in butter. I find cream varies so 

 much that I always speak of butter. 



The Chairman. Won't you tell us how much cream you 

 can get from that skim-milk by setting it from six to twenty- 

 four hours ? 



Mb. Burnett. I have never seen any cream on my skim- 

 milk after it has been through the machine. 



Question. At what temperature do you set your milk ? 



Mr. Burnett. We take the milk warm from the cow to 

 produce the best results. By running this machine one 

 minute more than is necessary, we get a cream that is so 

 thick, that I could take a tumblerful, and put a spoon into 

 the middle of it, and it will stay there for thirty seconds, 

 until it gradually begins to cant over. Of course, after it 

 begins to lose its equilibrium, it drops very rapidly to the 

 side. The cream is thicker than good molasses. Let it 

 stand two days, and it will be like a Dutch cheese. I have 

 had butter on my table for breakfast made from cream from 

 this centrifugal machine three-quarters of an hour after the 

 cow was milked. The skim-milk thrown off by this machine 

 deposits a green slime, which is found in every milk that I 

 have ever tried, although I rather pride myself on the clean- 

 liness with which my operations are conducted. My cows' 

 bags are all wiped with a piece of burlap before they are 

 milked. They are carded every day. My men are obliged 

 to wash their hands before they go to milk, and I take all 

 the pains possible to get the cleanest milk. It is strained 

 through three strainers and through a cloth ; and yet, in spite 

 of all that, I find about as much green scum from my milk 

 as from A's, B's, or C's milk. On the inside of this machine 

 we find a green scum that is very disagreeable and offensive. 

 It is something that changes very rapidly. The chemical 



