THE BEST SEPARATORS. 141 



power use, as well also as for hand use. The separators of Dr. O. 

 Brown are hand-separators. Altogether there are used in German 

 dairying 41 separators, 22 for power use and 19 for hand use. 

 The separators of De Laval and Burmeister and Wain are war- 

 ranted. Their merit is established. The Alpha separators have also 

 been proved to be satisfactory, from the results of many exhaustive 

 experiments which have been carried out on them. As to the capa- 

 city of the remaining separators, further reliable experiments and 

 tests are required to enable a correct judgment to be formed, and to 

 prove their practical value. 



68. The Best Separators. The value of a separator is determined 

 chiefly, though not exclusively, by its capacity for work. This is 

 best measured by the quantity of milk which it can cream in an 

 economical manner, at a uniform rate of speed, and at a fixed cost 

 per hour, when fed with a regular supply of warm milk at 30 C., 

 the skim -milk to contain an average percentage of fat of '25 per 

 cent. A separator possesses, therefore, the largest capacity for work 

 which creams in an hour, under the above conditions, the largest 

 quantity of milk. Which is the best separator at the present time it 

 is impossible exactly to say. In the middle of the eighties, one might 

 assert that the three at that time most in use differed very little from 

 one another. Among the six different separators for power use which 

 are at present used, much difference, however, exists, since a new 

 advance would appear to have been made in the perfecting of 

 separators, which in time may permit us to await again a certain 

 settlement in the capacity of the different separators. The most 

 efficient separators are not always the best. The best separators 

 may be described as those that are best suited, from a technical and 

 economical point of view, for the special conditions under which 

 they are to be used. Whether a separator will ever be found which 

 will prove to be the best under all conditions, it is impossible to say. 

 It is also very questionable whether circumstances may not exist in 

 which, where very slight differences in their capacities exist, the 

 less capable of two separators may not be preferable, since it may 

 possess certain advantages and conveniences which, although they 

 appear to be of little importance, have yet a material value in the 

 circumstances in which they are used. 



69. The Cream-raising Coefficient in connection with the Use of 

 Separators. As has already been mentioned in 53, the extent 

 to which cream has been separated from milk by centrifugal 



