Whitewash

“ The other thing about whitewashing is that it is done with a broom, not with a finicking brush and a small pot, but a good fat bucket and the housemaid’s soft-broom. In this way you can really get some bravura into your work. And, except perhaps for watering the garden with a hose, there is no quicker way of making a really good mess. Whitewashing by this method, I find that it takes much longer to remove the whitewash from the floors and other places where it is not intended to go than it does to put the whitewash on the places where it is intended to go ”

“ Then they put a hard coat of whitewash, as thick as your thumb-nail, on the fence and all over the house, roof, chimneys, and all; the sun comes out and shines on this spectacle, and it is time for you to shut your unaccustomed eyes, lest they be put out. It is the whitest white you can conceive of, and the blindingest. A Bermuda house does not look like marble ”

“ Retarding of growth is possible in this way for a period of six to ten days, which, of course, in some cases might be of value, but the lengthened dormancy is probably too small to constitute it of general value. In whitewashing, to determine what advantage there is in it in retarding growth, the tree should be thoroughly sprayed with whitewash so as to cover all the wood some time before the buds swell. In fact, it is to prevent the early swelling of the buds that the whitewashing is resorted to. ”

“ Another simple method is to add to 2 gallons of ready-made lime whitewash one half-pint each of molasses and table salt. Must be stirred frequently while being used.
Whitewash for Exterior Surfaces.—A formula for a durable whitewash for out-buildings of rough lumber. The following is reprinted from “Popular Mechanics”:
(6) Place 1 bushel good fresh lime in a barrel with 20 lbs. beef tallow; slake with hot water and cover with sackcloth to keep in steam. When the lime is slaked, the tallow will have disappeared, having formed a chemical compound with the lime. ”

“ When vines are trained upon the sides of a house or fence, it is well to whitewash the surfaces on which they are fastened with a wash in which flowers of sulphur has been largely mixed.
It is recommended by some cultivators to employ such a whitewash for the wood of the vine, covering all the main stems with it; but all these methods result in the one thing—the application of sulphur as a remedy for mildew.
HOW TO OBTAIN GRAPE VINES. Grafting is only practised on the vine for special reasons, and we have never had occasion to try it. We shall speak of a better mode of obtaining vines. ”

“ To varnish chromos, take equal quantities of linseed oil and oil of turpentine; thicken by exposure to the sun and air until it becomes resinous and half evaporated; then add a portion of melted beeswax. Varnishing pictures should always be performed in fair weather, and out of any current of cold or damp air. A fireproof whitewash can be readily made by adding one part silicate of soda (or potash) to every five parts of whitewash. The addition of a solution of alum to whitewash is recommended as a means to prevent the rubbing off of the wash. ”

“ Because he put on so much oil that he made a glossy surface and the gloss could not hold the paste. An oil size on whitewash is all right if used right. It is a mistake to use clear oil; 1 pint of oil, 1 pint japan and 1 quart turpentine is better, because it will penetrate further, dry faster, flat the surface, and have sufficient binding power to hold the whitewash from coming off. ”

“ Your boxes then must be coloured either white, red, stone colour, or dark brown. In the white use either white paint—flat, not shining, or if that cost too much trouble and money, whitewash made of whitening, size, hot water and a pinch of yellow ochre or chrome powder to give it a pleasant ivory creaminess. There should be a good deal of size so that the whitewash does not come off on every thing.
The red boxes can be painted to match the red bricks, or colour-washed (whitewash as before, but red ochre for colour) . ”

“ Half of the whitewash is worn off, and the other half coloured by various mosses and wandering lichens, which have been permitted to vegetate upon it, and which, though beautiful, constitute a kind of beauty from which the ideas of age and decay are inseparable. ”

“ For sanitary carbolic whitewash use vegetable size, dissolving in five gallons, boiling hot, two ounces of carbolic crystals. Then pour upon the lime and mix well. Two ounces of copperas—green vitriol—dissolved instead of the carbolic acid gives a faint-yellow tinge and is a good prophylactic. To kill vermin, as in poultry houses, nest boxes, and so on, mix through a pail of hot wash five grains of corrosive sublimate dissolved in a pint of water ”

“ Green must not be mixed with lime. The lime destroys the color, and the color has an effect on the whitewash which makes it crack and peel. When inside walls have been badly smoked and you wish to make them a clean, clear white, it is well to squeeze indigo plentifully through a bag into the water you use before it is stirred into the whole mixture ”

“ With winter will come the rabbits, and they will girdle the trees if not prevented. Many and varied are the sure cures for them, but none are perfect. A wash of ordinary whitewash and a pint of sulphur to the bucketful, applied with a brush or swab to the bodies of the trees, generally stops their work, but if the rain washes it off it must be put on again or they will resume operations. A little coal-oil added to the whitewash prevents the rain from having so much effect on it ”

“ This paste is applied in a thin layer to the surface of the table or desk to be covered, the cloth or leather is then laid on and smoothed with a roller. If leather is to be fastened on it must be first dampened.
Whitewash and Paints. Brilliant Stucco Whitewash.
This is a time-tried whitewash, either for inside or outside work, and has been known to retain its brilliancy for over thirty years. Nice unslaked lime, 1/2 bushel; slake it with boiling water; cover it during the process to keep in the steam. ”

“ Whitewash 1 gallon + chloride of lime 6 ounces. 2. Whitewash 1 gallon + crude carbolic acid 7 ounces. 3. Whitewash 1 gallon + formalin 4 ounces.
The same may be applied with brushes or, more rapidly, sprayed on with a pump; the surface soil of the yard and surroundings should be removed to a depth of 5 or 6 inches, placed in a heap and thoroughly mixed with quicklime. The fresh surface of soil thus exposed may be sprinkled with a solution of a chemical disinfectant as above described. ”

“ It is not enough that the house should look clean. The obvious dirt, bad as it is, does less harm than the almost invisible vermin that lurk in the crevices of roosts, nests, and walls. Whitewash is a very wholesome finish for the interior and should be put on at least twice a year. This is not enough however. Every square inch of surface should be wet thoroughly with some liquid which is sure death to vermin. Spray or brush may be used. I wonder if this could be done too often in hot weather. Once a month is probably often enough if good insect powder is used on the hens and in the nests. ”

“ Whitewash on the forehead hardens the brain into a state of obstinacy perhaps. ”

“ Wood ashes may be used as a simple disinfectant to cover decayed organic matter. Whitewash is a good disinfectant and should be frequently used both inside and outside the house and on all out-buildings. ”

“ The keg is full of whitewash, and this pump will throw a steady stream for over thirty feet. If we can get the brute within range, my idea is to spray him with whitewash until we can see enough of him to shoot at. White always shows up fairly well in the dark. Catch the idea?”
Doctor Morse gazed at his friend in surprised admiration for an instant ”

“ A is white and finds it necessary to whitewash B, who is black: after several years of hopeless grey, A finds that he has indeed put some very satisfactory daubs of whitewash all over B, but that his own coat has been blackened in the course of the struggle. ”

“ Some cultivators think they meet the case by providing shading only on the sunny side, or by painting the glass with some kind of preparation more or less in the nature of whitewash. Such preparations should never be used, because, when this is once placed on the glass, the shade, such as it is, is there in dull as well as bright weather, in the night time as well as the day, and for the greater part of the time, especially in dull seasons, it obstructs light which is necessary for the proper development of the plants. ”

“ The colors which absorb heat most readily are black and purple. White is one of the best protections by reason of its reflective power. A whitewashing of the branches of the trees and in fact of all the tree has been practiced with some success as retarding the early bloom of the buds. Elaborate studies of this method of treatment have been carried on by the Missouri station, and it has been developed that there is a considerable difference between the temperature of whitewashed and unwhitewashed peach twigs. ”

“ The malagequit is very much prized, and used for making sweet and fancy dishes; it becomes exceedingly glutinous, for which reason it is used in making whitewash, which it is said to cause to become of a brilliant white, and to withstand the weather. ”

“ A wash made of soap, tobacco water, and fresh cow manure mingled to the consistency of cream, and put on early with an old broom, and allowed to trickle down about the roots of the tree, has proved with me a very excellent preventive of the ravages of the borer, and a healthful wash for the trunk of the tree, much to be preferred to the application of lime or whitewash, which I have often seen applied, but which I am inclined to think is not as desirable an application as the potash, or the soda, as this mixture of soft soap and manure. ”

“ Lime is injurious to clothes, shoes and skin. Wear old shoes and clothes which can be washed, and protect your head and hands. Professional [341] whitewashers usually appear in hats or sunbonnets; it is not a badge of their profession, but a means of protecting their eyes when they whitewash above their heads. Protection for hands is even more necessary, a day's work without protection means hands too sore to use for anything. One might think that rubber gloves would be perfect for this purpose, but in a few hours the lime eats through the rubber. ”

“ Wax for Bottling.—Rosin, 13 parts; wax, 1 part; melt and add any color. Used to render corks and bungs air-tight by melting the wax over them.
Whitewash.—Slack half a bushel of lime with boiling water, and cover the vessel to retain the steam. Strain the liquor, and add one peck of salt previously dissolved in warm water, 3 lbs. of rice boiled and ground to a paste, Spanish whiting, 8 oz.; glue, 1 lb.; mix and add hot water, 5 gallons; let it stand a few days, and apply hot. It makes a brilliant wash for inside or outside works. ”

“ By the bye, a fair lady, whose opinion, in most matters of taste, I hold in the deepest reverence, recently became a convert to this doctrine of Mr Wordsworth, because she noticed the effect just instanced, not when gazing upon a landscape, but when compiling patch work in which fragments of white intruded amongst the blues, yellows, greens, reds, and neutrals, woefully disturbed the harmony and repose of the cushion cover or quilt. Mr Wordsworth says also, in support of his anti-whitewashing theory, that “in nature, pure white is scarcely ever found but in small objects, such as flowers ”

“ Ox blood in lime paint is an excellent binding agent for the lime, as it is chiefly composed of albumin, which, like casein or milk, is capable of transforming the lime into casein paint. But the ox blood must be mixed in the lime paint; to use it separately is useless, if not harmful. Whitewashing rough mortar-plastering to saturation is very practical, as it closes all the pores and small holes.
A formula used by the United States Government in making whitewash for light-houses and other public buildings is as follows:
Slake the lime in a vessel of about 10 gallons capacity ”

“ Here's the brush and here's a pail of lime, and if I don't white-wash more cellar in ten minutes than Moses could in all day, I'll never try it again. Besides, Mrs. Bowser, whitewashing is not the slouch work you imagine it to be. It has got to be done by a person of taste and intelligence or it won't stand. ”

“ "This is fine!" he said to himself. "This is better than whitewashing!" ”

“ Whiteness always results from the intimate and irregular mixture of air and a transparent solid; a crushed diamond would resemble snow. If we pound the more transparent rock-salt into powder, we have a substance as white as the whitest culinary salt; and the colorless glass vessel which holds the salt would also, if pounded, give a powder as white as the salt itself. It is a law of light that, in passing from one substance to another possessing a different power of refraction, a portion of it is always reflected. ”

“ In such soil as the rocks gave the sandwort put forth tiny innumerable cups of white. Down in the tundra-clad slopes the geum throve as well, but there the white of the sandwort was replaced by that of countless stars of Houstonia. White and gold was everywhere in this flower-garden of the clouds, subtended here and there by the lavender delicacy of the Alpine violet, Viola palustris. Everywhere, too, was the honest, plebeian white and green of the dwarf cornel, and the æsthetic, green-yellow blooms of the Clintonia. ”