FLOUR PASTE.
Make flour paste in the ordinary way, and add to it a small portion of the solution of corrosive sublimate, or powdered corrosive sublimate. This will prevent the attack of mites, to which paste is very liable when dried. This paste may be dried into a cake, and moistened when required.
SOLUTION OF GUM-ARABIC.
The solution of gum-arabic is made by simply adding water to it. When used as a varnish, or for attaching objects, it is extremely apt to get too brittle in very warm weather, and to crack or split off in scales; to prevent this, a quarter of an ounce of white or brown sugar candy must be added to two ounces of gum-arabic.
PAPER, PASTE, GUMMED.
Take a coffee-pot, filled with water, and add to it a quantity of paper, which has been slightly sized, like that used for printing engravings. Let it boil for three hours, and when the water has evaporated, boil it again for a similar length of time. Take out the paper, and squeeze it well in a colander, and then pound it in a mortar, until it is reduced to a very fine paste. It must then be dried. When it is required for use, add to it some of the solution of gum-arabic; and keep it in a pot for use.
POLLEN POWDER.
The paper made as above directed, when well dried, is pounded in a mortar till it becomes a very fine powder; it is then put into a tin pepper-box, and when any of the parts of Parrots’ bills, etc., are wished to have this powdered appearance, a little of the solution of gum-arabic is washed over the part with a camel’s-hair pencil, and the powder dusted on it and allowed to dry.