WATERPROOF COVERS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 22 December 1938, Page 11

WATERPROOF COVERS

SOME EFFICIENT RECIPES SOME HINTS ON HARVESTING At this haying and harvesting season farmers are generally interested in means of re-waterproofing old canvas stack and implement covers, and in treating covers made from sacking and simliar materials so as to convert them to cheap and efficient protection for slacks.

A method of waterproofing canvas, or ordinary cloth, which is very efficient, is to stir one ounce of sugar of lead and one ounce of powdered alum into one gallon of rain water until they are dissolved (says the Napier “Telegraph”). Allow the solution to stand until the sediment falls, then pour off the clear solution and soak the sheet or cloth in it for 24 hours.

To make a worn and leaky oilsheet again waterproof, melt mutton suet, one part, and beeswax, two parts, together, and apply with a piece of rag or waste while hot.

Sacks can be waterproofed by a mixture of one part coal tar and two parts ‘mutton fat melted together and painted on while warm. Another method, and a good one, is to take 561 b of Stockholm tar, ljlb of powdered litharge, half a gallon of boiled linseed oil, one quart of hard oak varnish and Jib of sugar of lead. Mix thoroughly and reduce to the consistency of thin paint with boiled linseed oil if not thin enough in the original mixture. This applied to any material dries quickly with a bright surface and does not crack or blister in the weather. It is a particularly good dressing for canvas covers of machinery or stacks.