To Make White Or Colored Washes, Dyeing, &c.

Take half a bushel of unslaked lime, slack with boiling water, covering
it during the process to keep in the steam. Strain the liquid through a
fine sieve or strainer, and add to it a peck of clean salt, previously
dissolved in warm water, three pounds of ground rice boiled, to a thin
paste; stir in, boiling hot, one pound of Spanish whiting, one of clean
glue, dissolved by soaking it well, and simmering over a slow fire in a
small kettle within a larger one containing water; add five gallons of
boiling water to the whole mixture; stir it well, and if you are not
ready to use it, cover it close.

It should be put on quite hot; for this
purpose, it can be kept in a kettle on a portable furnace. Coloring
matter may be added to make any shade desired. Spanish brown stirred in
will make a pink color, more or less deep according to the quantity, a
delicate tinge of this is very pretty for inside walls. Indigo mixed
with the Spanish brown makes a delicate purple, or alone with the
mixture, a pale blue. Lamp-black, in moderate quantity, makes a slate
color, suitable for the outside of buildings.

Lamp-black and Spanish brown together, produce a reddish stone color,
yellow ochre, a yellow wash, but chrome goes further and makes a
brighter color. It is well to try on a shingle, or piece of paper, or
board, and let it dry to ascertain the color. If you wash over old
paper, make a sizing of wheat flour like thin starch, put it on, and
when dry, put on the coloring, for a white-washed wall, make a sizing
of whiting and glue water. This precaution should always be taken before
using chrome yellow or green, as the previous use of lime injures the
color of the chrome. When walls have been badly smoked, add to your
white-wash sufficient indigo to make it a clear white.