CHAPTER XII 

 NORTH DAKOTA PAINT TESTS 



AN inspection of the original test fence, erected and painted 

 by the North Dakota Agricultural College, on the grounds of 

 the agricultural Experiment Station at Fargo, was made by the 

 inspection committee 1 representing the Paint Manufacturers' 

 Association of the United States, on the 19th and 20th of Novem- 

 ber, 1909. The fence was erected in 1906 and painted with 

 commercial paints, procured in the open market. The east side 

 of the fence was built of soft pine and cedar weather-boarding, 

 such as is almost universally used on houses in that locality, 

 presenting a very good surface for test purposes, while the west 

 side was built largely of flat trimmed boards of hard pitch pine 

 which, unfortunately, contained knots, pitch pockets, and uneven 

 surfaces, causing to a greater or lesser extent cracking, scaling, 

 and bad general results on all paints applied thereto. 



The fences built in 1907 and 1908 at the suggestion of the Paint 

 Manufacturers' Association, were inspected on the 20th, 21st, 

 and 22nd of November, 1909, and the detailed results of the 

 inspection of all these fences follow in this report. The same 

 general conclusions as to the woods represented in the 1906 

 fence also apply to the 1907 and 1908 fences, and because of 

 the general bad quality of wood used on the western exposure 

 of all fences, the detailed reports were made only from an ex- 

 amination of the eastern side of the fences, both on cedar and 

 soft pine. 



The following general summary of the inspection and its re- 

 sults applies to all the test fences on the grounds of the college 

 and is the unanimous conclusion drawn by the inspectors from 

 this work: 



" Non-absorbent woods, difficult to penetrate, such as those 

 on the west side of the fences, would undoubtedly have given 



1 Henry A. Gardner, Director Scientific Section, Educational Bureau, 

 Paint Manufacturers' Association of U. S.; George Butler, Master Painter; 

 Charles MacNichol, Master Painter. 



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