December 28, 1866. Winter Linings for Hives. 
Cannot suitable woolen mats be made coarsely woven for winter
use for beehives. So vital the point of wintering bees in open air where
climate one of great and sudden extremes, that considerable expense would
be a good investment. Suppose something of this kind attempted. 
Say bees would cluster between four combs, let the two combs outside of
these have old woolen garments, etc. tacked to them, kept off from honey and with proper
winter passages so that bees could easily pass and repass. Would they not keep
more compactly clustered? Would not bees as soon as weather cold, retreat
within these woolen walls instead of lying on outside combs to get chilled
and die? Keep two full combs within woolen walls, and woolen on the
outside of them. Would not this be incomparably better than any straw
hives, [crossed out: illegible] lining of hives on the insides, etc. bees retreat from these
sides and the only effect of the linings to make hives better nonconductors. 
This can at once be tried tomorrow. Nothing of the kind possible except
with movable comb hives and these should have the distances between them
capable of being regulated at will. [crossed out: (31st) 10 degrees. Ice now ready for
ice houses. ] Have devised what seems to be an excellent plan for wintering bees
in the open air. Get woolen mats, old pieces of carpet, better still thick
woolen felting such as the Lowell Felting Company make. Cut out pieces
which when stitched together will make a mat which can be forced into an
empty hive fastened front and rear, corners made with thin wood strips square,
not coming to bottom of hive so as to interfere with removing cleaning floor mat
coming up high enough to come over tops of frames when put upon strips in gutter
to keep frames higher from bottom board of hive. Mat ought to be wide
enough to include not over eight frames, better still six if food enough
for colony on [crossed out: illegible] six frames. Top should be covered with a thicker mat
to prevent too much escape of heat, bottom board mat tacked to thin slats to be
able to push in and take out with greater ease. Front of mat might come down
to bottom board. Back of mat come down too if slit up to be held up to let
bottom board mat slip in and out. The bees by this arrangement are
lodged within woolen walls, straw, etc. all sham compared with this. 
Suppose first cost of this arrangement to be near $2 per hive, allow for
interest and depreciation 12 1/2 % 25� per hive. If the mats are properly
cared for when removed from hive this should be ample. What is this compared with
the benefits? Bees must be made to winter in the open air as well in movable
comb hives as in straw hives. Too many niceties in unlining them