Or slake 8 quarts of lime in a tight cask or barrel, strain, and add 2 quarts of salt dissolved in hot wa ter. Add boiling starch made of 2 pounds of rice flour. First mix the starch with cold water to a thin paste, dilute with hot water, and boil the mixture 15 minutes. Stir in while boiling hot. Then stir in 4 ounces of powdered whiting and 8 ounces of best white glue dissolved in hot water over a slow fire. Dilute with 3 gallons of hot water, stir vig orously, cover, and let stand 3 or 4 days. This mixture should cover 24 to 36 square yards of wood, brick, or stone. It may be used instead of oil paints, is much cheaper, and will last for years. It should be applied hot, which may be done by using a portable furnace or by sus pending a kettle over a camp fire by means of three poles in the form of a tripod.
Or slake 8 quarts of lime, strain, and add 1 pound of dissolved glue and 1 or 2 quarts of boiled linseed oil. Dilute with water.
Or dissolve in hot water 4 quarts of water lime, 4 quarts of fresh slaked lime, 4 pounds of powdered yellow ocher, and 4 pounds of burnt umber. This gives a rich cream col or for fences, outhouses, and barns.
Wash for Bricks. — To make a wash for red brick walls, dissolve 2 ounces of glue in 1 gallon of water over a slow fire. Soaking the glue for a day or two beforehand will make it dissolve more quickly. Bring the glue to a boil and stir in 1 tablespoonful of powdered alum, I pound of Venetian red, and 1 pound of Spanish brown. Or vary these proportions according to taste. Mix
and apply with a brush.
To Prepare Calcimine.—Dissolve with boiling water in separate ket tles 10 pounds of Spanish whiting, 8 ounces of white glue, and 8 ounces of powdered alum. Use in each case enough water to make a thin cream. Pour together, stirring vigorously, strain through cheese cloth, and add 1 teaspoonful of bluing. Apply while warm. Add coloring matter to suit, and dilute with soap jelly to the right consistency. Remove paper, if any, wash off old calcimine or lime, fill holes or cracks with plaster of Paris, and apply a sizing of glue or shellac.
Mix calcimine with any coloring matter desired and apply the same• as whitewash.
Blue Wash for Walls and Ceil ings.—Dissolve 1 pound of blue vit riol and 8 ounces of whiting in 3 quarts of water. Boil with gentle heat 2 or 3 hours, stirring fre quently. Remove from the fire, stir, and allow to cool. Pour the liquor from the sediment, mix the latter with 1 ounce of common glue dis solved in 1 gallon of water, and ap ply with a brush.
To Paint Frescoes.—To paint in fresco consists in applying colors not injured by lime to the fresh mortar, stucco, or plaster while still damp. The advantage of this sort of painting is that it incorporates with the mortar, dries with it, and is very durable. Frescoes may be applied in any design, free hand or by means of stencil. Or the walls may be painted in fresco with tints or solid colors.
Glazing for Frescoes.—To protect frescoes, dilute paraffin with benzol, and apply a thin coating with a brush.