No painter can say truthfully that his cars never crack, as it is a natural consequence of decay, and will come, sooner or later, to the best of material.
That varnish cracks to a great extent at right angles to the grain of the wood, I think is due, in some degree, to the same reasons as given above for the cracking of paint, and after its elasticity is destroyed by age. Vibration has a great effect upon the hard and brittle coating of gum that remains, coupled with expansion and contraction caused by variations of temperature and the disintegrating influences of the weather.
BRUSH CLEANING TROUGH.
To make such a trough, take a piece of planed board, 6 inches wide and 18 inches long, and nail on side pieces 2 inches wide; this makes the trough. Nail this trough on a bench, box, or table, and let one end of it project over the edge of the bench, box or table, and place your slush bucket under the projecting end of the trough. To clean a brush, lay it in the trough, keep hold of the handle with one hand and with the other take a dull scraper and press the paint out of the brush and shove it off into the slush bucket. The advantage of this method is that you clean the whole length of the brush and save the paint, instead of daubing it on the walls of your shop.
FLOOR WAX.
A good preparation for waxing floors may be obtained as follows:
| Yellow Wax | 25 | oz. |
| Yellow Ceresin | 25 | oz. |
| Burnt Sienna | 5 | oz. |
| Boiled Linseed Oil | 1 | oz. |
| Turpentine | 1 | gill |
Melt the wax and ceresin at a gentle heat, then add the sienna previously well triturated with the boiled linseed oil, and mix well. When the mixture begins to cool add the oil of turpentine, or so much of it as is required to make a mass of the consistence of an ointment.