628 



Yearboo^ of Agriculture 1949 



permits longer intervals between re- 

 paintings, can be obtained with paints 

 made with large proportions of col- 

 ored pigments and little or no white 

 pigment. Colored-pigment paints, ex- 

 cept for some brilliant yellows and 

 reds, are dark paints that tend to sup- 

 press rather than to accentuate. The 

 brilliant yellows and the reds are too 

 gaudy for use on anything larger than 

 minor areas of trim on buildings; be- 

 sides, they make relatively expensive 

 paints. Duller, more grayish yellows, 

 reds, maroons, and browns, which are 

 made from pigments containing iron 

 oxide, are appropriate for the body 

 color of some buildings. Paints of such 

 colors may be moderate in cost and of 

 exceptionally long life; with the best 

 of them, a schedule of repainting at 

 intervals as long as 10 years, is prac- 

 ticable. 



Because the single-family home is 

 usually a fairly small building, the 

 popular choice of white or a light color 

 to accentuate it is appropriate even 

 though it commits the owner to more 

 frequent repainting than might other- 

 wise be necessary. Brightly painted 

 homes, of course, may have the paints 

 of dark color for contrast on trim or 

 on parts that need toning down. The 

 schedule of maintenance, however, is 

 usually fixed by the requirements of 

 the least durable paint because con- 

 venience is likely to dictate that all 

 repainting be done at one time. 



THE FARM HOME is often a small 

 house in the midst of a group of larger 

 buildings. The American tradition 

 most appropriately has been to empha- 

 size the home with white paint, but 

 to offset the dominating size of the 

 farm buildings by painting them dark 

 red, relieved by contrasting touches of 

 white trim. The home is thus made 

 the center of the picture ; the barns are 

 reduced to supporting background; 

 and the whole conforms to the philoso- 

 phy of farming as a way of life. The 

 scheme permits an economical paint- 

 ing program of once in 4 or 5 years for 

 the house, and once in 8 or 10 years for 



the larger area presented by the farm 

 buildings. 



Recently a vogue has developed for 

 painting farm buildings white. Perhaps 

 it is to be interpreted philosophically as 

 a shift to the concept of farming as 

 primarily a business in which the hous- 

 ing of cows is more important than 

 the housing of humans. Certainly if 

 barns are to be accented with bright 

 paint, they should be made architec- 

 turally more attractive than they gen- 

 erally have been in years past. Judg- 

 ing from experience, in which many 

 farmers have been unable to keep up 

 with the moderate 10-year program for 

 red paint, it seems unlikely that a 5- 

 year program with white paint will 

 prove generally practicable. Besides, a 

 white building badly in need of re- 

 painting calls attention to itself far 

 more forcefully than does a modestly 

 dark-red building in a like condition. 



OF THE MANY WAYS OF MAKING 



PAINT, some make more durable or 

 more reliable paint than others. No one 

 way is superior to the others in every 

 respect, for an improvement in one 

 property usually necessitates some sac- 

 rifice in another. For example: Old- 

 fashioned, pure white lead paint is 

 more reliable in performance and 

 wears out by a fine crumbling that 

 makes it stand postponement of re- 

 painting longer than other white 

 paints will, but white lead paint has 

 the disadvantage of becoming more 

 grimy with dirt than some other paints 

 do. On the other hand, the more 

 recent paints made with titanium di- 

 oxide, zinc oxide, and white lead, to- 

 gether with other necessary pigments 

 and liquids, remain relatively clean and 

 bright in appearance. They do not, 

 however, retain color so well and, if 

 repainting is postponed beyond the 

 proper time, they look shabbier and 

 are more troublesome to prepare for 

 repainting than white lead paint. 



Home owners who plan their main- 

 tenance programs carefully and stick 

 to them can take full advantage of the 

 newer paints, but those who may neg- 



