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water, are good cements. A paste made of linseed meal 

 dries very hard, and adheres firmly. A soft cement is 

 made of yellow wax melted with its weight of turpentine, 

 and a little Venetian red to give it color. This, when 

 cold, is as hard as soap, but can be softened by the warmth 

 of the hand, and is very useful to stop up cracks; and is 

 better to cover the corks of bottles sent to a distance than 

 sealing-wax or hard cement. Plaster of Paris may servo 

 as an occasional cement. 



ROUGH CASTING. 



This is a cheap and durable method of finishing walls in- 

 stead of stucco, and is well calculated to protect them from 

 the effects of the weather, but is chiefly employed in small 

 nouses and cottages in the country, built of rough stone or 

 rubble. There are two kinds of rough cast. In the first, 

 the wall receives a coat of lime and hair laid on smooth ; 

 and as fast as a certain portion of it is covered, the rough 

 cast is thrown or splashed against the wet mortar with a 

 large trowel. This rough cast is made by reducing very 

 fine gravel, or coarse sand, to a uniform size by sifting or 

 skreening, and washing the earth away from it. This is 

 mixed with newly slacked lime and water to the consist- 

 ence of thick cream. When the plasterer has covered a 

 part of the wall in the manner mentioned, he brushes it 

 over with a whitewash brush, dipped into the pail with the 

 rough cast, so as to lay the whole smooth and even. The 

 intense white of the lime is unpleasant to a person of taste, 

 although in some parts of the country, many delight in it ; 

 but this white glare may be easily softened, and a stone 

 color produced, by putting into the mixture a sufficient 

 quantity of yellow, or stone ochre, or Spanish brown, or 

 ochre with brown or black, to produce the desired tint 

 It will be necessary to try the color on a board or a part 

 of the wall, and to let it dry to determine the exact tint, 



