74 



EGGS IN COLD STORAGE. 



Shellac for 

 wall coating. 



Lime as an 



absorbent of 

 moisture and 

 impurities. 



nearly as impervious as so much oil paint, and quite 

 valuable for nearly all interior and some exterior 

 work. Many houses use nothing else for their refrig- 

 erator rooms, but the expense is not warranted, as 

 whitewash will do equally well in most places. It is 

 a good idea to keep some of this cold water paint on 

 hand, and apply it at intervals to doors, etc., when 

 they become soiled by handling. This is much better 

 than to paint doors some dark color so they will not 

 show soil nothing compares with a pure white and 

 oil paint has no place about a storage room. 



Shellac is an old stand-by finish for refrigerator 

 rooms, and if selected ceiling is used, it makes a very 

 neat piece of work, as it brings out the natural grain 

 of the wood, than which there is no more beautiful 

 finish. The surface scratches easily and will look 

 mussy unless renewed frequently, but there is no 

 serious objection to shellac (barring the expense), as 

 it is strictly odorless and w r aterproof. It has no puri- 

 fying or disinfectant properties like lime and salt 

 whitewash, in appearance is very little superior, and 

 the much increased expense makes it very little used 

 at present. Many other preparations are in use 

 under various names, but whitewash is as good as any 

 of them, with the exception previously noted. 



The two chemical absorbents in general use for 

 taking up moisture and the impurities from cold 

 storage rooms are chloride of calcium and lime 

 (either unslaked or air slaked, or in the form of 

 whitewash, as before mentioned.) Occasionally 

 waste bittern from salt works is used, but the active 

 principle of bittern is chloride of calcium. Ordinary 

 quicklime has the property of absorbing moisture and 

 impure gases from the air, and is used in very much 

 the same way as chloride of calcium; that is, it is 

 placed around the room on trays or pans. Lime, 

 however, has very little capacity for moisture as com- 

 pared with chloride of calcium, and when exposed to 



