it should then be beaten up or stirred until all the lumps are broken, and it becomes a stiff, smooth paste. A good workman will do this carefully with his hand, and will manipulate it until it is quite smooth, but it may be done most effectually with a broad stick or spatula, and then strained through a metal or other strainer. The size should now be added, and the two lightly but effectually mixed together. Care should be taken not to break the jelly of the size any more than can be avoided, and this may be best done by gently stirring the mixture with the hand. If the jellied state is retained intact, the color will work cool, and lay on smooth and level. The size, whether made of parchment clippings, glue, or any other material, should be dissolved in a sufficient quantity of water to form a weak jelly when cold. In practice we find that distemper mixed with jellied size will lay on better and make a better job than when the size is used hot. Color mixed on the former plan works cool and floats nicely, while the latter works dry, and drags and gathers, thus making a rough ceiling or wall, and the difference in the labor required is very much in favor of jellied size. A little alum added to the distemper has a good effect in hardening, and helps it to dry out solid and even.
In distemper painting, or, as it is more frequently called, calcimining, the base generally used for all the tints is the finest whiting, which is prepared in large quantities by various manufacturers. All the colors should either be ground very fine, or should be washed over, so as to ensure the most minute division of their particles.
It will require two coats, and sometimes more, of any of the tints to cover plaster well, and to bear out with absolute uniformity. When old plastering has become disfigured by stains, it is necessary, in the first place, to properly scrape and prepare the wall, and then to give it one or two coats of white lead ground in oil, the second being mixed with an additional quantity of turpentine, this, if
