The answer is, “Choose the manufacturer, then choose the paint.” No household has a laboratory, and the widest advertised paint brands have stood the test. Consequently, a can opener, the paint, and an all-seeing eye to keep abreast of the advertisements are the requirements for the pocket laboratory. But, the standard for any paint is the overworked word “service.” If the paint you and your friends have used does not wear, get another make. But by all means, do not use these things blindly any more than you would use face powder without knowing the brand. Buy the best. In no other household commodity is this advice more important. Sometimes the best paints and varnishes deteriorate in storage or transit, by being kept in too cold a room, and may be explosive if treated with too high a temperature. PAINT RULES In buying paint it will do no harm to bear in mind: 1. That one gallon of paint should be distributable over an area (in two coats) of 300 square feet. 2. A good paint should produce a surface that is neither too hard nor too soft. Surfaces that are too hard are prone to chipping and cracking or splitting. Sometimes they remain sticky if they are too soft, or chalk or powder or flow. 3. The average life of a good application of good paint is four years. It ought to last fifteen years, but to-day in our apartments we are glad if it lasts one month. Three years is the minimum, but a simple pigment paint frequently plays out in three years. 4. That paint must be durable in color and should last at least four years under normal conditions. Good floor paints and varnishes can stand dragging furniture, walking, hot utensils, steam, water, even alcohol and greases. 5. That good paints should leave surfaces suitable for repainting, which, being interpreted, means that the old paint should be still unbroken, making paste or liquid fillers practically unnecessary. Paste fillers with or without color are used to fill deep cracks, etc., not, however, caused by broken paint surfaces, but by faulty construction, warping, blows in plaster, wear, and such injuries. The common ills which are met with in paint life are: 1. Peeling, cracking or powdering, due to imperfect attachment, probably on greasy, damp or over artificially heated surfaces from which the moisture is driven up through the paint. 2. Blistering, due to underlying vaporized moisture. An excess of volatile oil prevents this. It often occurs on incompletely dried lumber, and often light or some chemical agency is the cause. 3. Alligatoring, incipient cracks due to heavy coats of paint applied to unseasoned wood especially if the paint is drier, tougher or more elastic than the under coats. 4. Wear. This is the only legitimate ill, if it takes place after the allotted period of its life.