After much solicitude and money have been expended on the construction of the house, it is poor economy to let it suffer for want of paint. Not infrequently the house is planned so large, or so much is spent on its erection that means are not at hand for fully protecting the outside with suitable paints.

As to the colors of paints or their combinations, little can be said, since tastes and conditions are extremely variable. A farm house should have its own distinctive features, and its own personality, and while it may be similar to many other houses it should not be a duplicate of any other one.

In manufacturing towns long rows of houses are built, each one the exact duplicate of all the others in shape, dimensions, and color. The effect is abominable. This illustration of exact imitation only goes to show how necessary it is to have diversity of style in the houses themselves and variation in the colors of the paints if the maximum beauty of the home and adaptation to landscape and site are secured. In painting the farm house beauty should not be ignored, but beauty may not be compatible with durability and necessary economy. The farm home may and should be placed in such beautiful environment that the paint which covers it sinks into comparative insignificance as compared to the painting of the city house; therefore the elements of economy and durability play as important parts in the painting of farm houses as does beauty. Even a great, plain, two-story white farm house with green window-blinds can be made to look beautiful and home-like if it has a suitable setting of noble trees.

If the outside covering of the house is placed some time before it receives its first coat of paint, the wood tends to check and usually becomes too dry for applying it. If exposed for some days to the direct rays of the sun before painting, so much of the oil of the paint will be taken up by the wood that there will not be enough left to bind the mineral matter of the paint to the wood. This is especially the case where an attempt is made to complete the painting by the application of but two coats, in which case, the first or prime coat must contain relatively much mineral material and little oil, and must be spread thickly if the surfaces are to be well covered by the two coats. Not infrequently, the outside woodwork is swollen and somewhat displaced by rains before the roof is in place. Even after it has dried out the ideal conditions are not secured. The roof should be placed as soon as the siding is completed, or if possible before. The carpenter should put on the first, or prime, coat as fast as the house is sided; that is, the woodwork which has been placed from one scaffold or stage should be painted from the scaffold before the one above is constructed. The corner boards, window sash, and frame should receive one coat of paint before they leave the shop. The prime coat may be of yellow ochre mixed with some white lead, since the after painting with the desired color will cover the yellow if two coats be applied. Good yellow ochre is a most durable paint when properly mixed and spread, although it may be said that the more white lead used in the prime coat the better. Yellow ochre should contain a large per cent of iron; when ochres are composed largely of colored clay they are inferior. The paint for the first coat should, in any case, be thin, since the oil which it contains plays an important part. This first coat tends, or should tend, to fill the wood with oil so that the oil in the after coat will mostly remain with the paint, and not leave it and pass into the wood, thereby destroying its binding force. Too much stress can hardly be laid on the necessity of rubbing the first coat into the wood by vigorous use of the brush. To realize the value of this principle one has but to visit a first-class carriage manufactory and observe the methods which are in use to prepare a carriage body for its final coat of dark paint and varnish. In too many cases the first coat of paint is mixed too thickly and is not pressed into the pores of the wood as it should be, in which case the paint may either peel or rub off in a few years. The country boy dressed in his best black suit often has a reminder of this if he chances to lean against the outside of the old country church while “waiting for meeting to take up.”

All outside painting, with the exception of the first coat, should be done, as far as possible, in cool weather. Early spring and late fall, when flies and dust are not present, are the best. If the house is built in the summer, the second coat may be put on in the fall and the third coat the following spring. The paint of the second coat may be a little thicker than that of the first, and that of the third a little thicker than the second. If the best job is desired the paint for all three coats should be mixed thinner than is customary, in which case a fourth coat will be required the following fall. The house will now have a polish similar to the well painted carriage body, and, like it, will resist moisture and remain good for a long time. If a building is to be painted at all it would better be painted at the beginning and be kept well painted, as it is the more economical in the end. Better curtail the size of the house than to build it so large that the outside covering must be neglected.

The oil used in paints is usually derived from the vegetable oil found in flax or linseed. Although many other kinds of oils have been tried, nothing has been discovered which can take the place, in paints, of linseed oil. This is most remarkable, for there are many vegetable oils which are very similar to this one. Linseed oil is expensive as compared with several other kinds, hence many attempts have been made to find an oil equally as good for painting; so far as I am able to learn, none have been discovered. Linseed oil in paints, when dried, forms a hard, tough, gluey coating which serves to bind firmly the particles of paint together, and to the wood, and to exclude water as no other oil does; hence if any other oil is mixed with the linseed oil, it is said to be adulterated. At the present time linseed oil is adulterated in some cases, and it is believed that this adulteration is the chief cause of the lack of durability in many of the ready-mixed paints. If linseed oil be mixed with other oils which are wanting in its valuable characteristic, it is certain that such oils will not bind the particles of paint together as they should be bound.

At present the only protection is to purchase guaranteed pure oil of dealers who are reliable beyond peradventure. Outside painting should be done with unboiled oil unless, on account of the weather, boiled oil must be used to hasten drying. In extreme cases a drier (litharge) is used. The drying process should not be rapid in outside painting, as slow drying promotes durability.

The substances mixed with the oil to form paints are extremely variable in composition and color. Some are good, and are usually relatively high priced. Others are inferior and relatively low priced. Now that so many brands of ready-mixed paints of many tints are in common use, it is impracticable to analyze all of them and determine their quality so that the inferior may be distinguished from the superior. There appears to be but two ways out of this serious dilemma: use the best brands of the ready-mixed paints and await results, or purchase pure white lead and zinc paints and pure oil, and tint to suit tastes and conditions. Heretofore, to do this successfully has required much skill and patience, especially if the house was to be painted in many colors.

Paints are now so universally adulterated that I deem it my duty to call attention to a company which virtually guarantees the material sold. The National Lead Company makes white paints of pure white lead and pure linseed oil. It also manufactures pure tinting colors, at least the company so advertise, and without doubt would be liable for damages should the paints prove to be adulterated. Sample tint cards are furnished and directions given as to the quantity and kind of tinting material to be mixed with the white paint to give the desired color. All this greatly simplifies painting, and if these paints are pure, as represented, the farmer will have no difficulty in securing pure paint of any tint desired.

The farmer who desires a beautifully painted house, and simplicity, may well restrict the colors of the paints he uses to two, being careful that they are in harmony, one with the other, and with the character of the house and its surroundings.

The following figures show the composition of some common paints (No. 1 was analyzed at the Cornell Exp. Sta., the others at the Iowa Station):

I. The paint known as white lead, when pure, is a basic carbonate of lead mixed in oil. A sample showed—

There was no evidence of adulteration.

II. White lead—

Adulterated with barium sulfate and zinc oxide. Barium sulfate is very heavy; in fact, in nature it is known as heavy spar.

III. Venetian red, dry—

Adulterated with calcium carbonate and calcium sulfate. Venetian red is ferric oxide, or a natural red oxide of iron. Calcium carbonate is chalk or limestone, and calcium sulfate is plaster.

IV. Venetian red in oil—

Adulterated with barium sulfate and calcium sulfate.