AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



523 



JOSEPH E. PO]«D, ESQ. 



Again we present to our reader one of 

 our honorable corps of representative 

 bee-keepers, who have for years aided 



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JOSEPH E. POND. 



in making the department of " Queries 

 and Replies " so interesting and profit- 

 able to our readers. Mr. Pond has from 

 the very first — in 1885 — contributed 

 regularly his opinions upon the various 

 questions propounded. He has also, at 



different times, and doubtless as "the 

 spirit moved him," written valuable 

 articles for the Bee Journal, upon the 

 numerous and important subjects that 

 have, from time to time, been discussed 

 in these columns. 



Mr. Pond was born in South Walpole, 

 Mass., on May 21, 1834. He was edu- 

 cated in the schools of his native State, 

 and at the "Indiana Asbury University," 

 in Greencastle, Ind. 



He studied medicine at the Howard 

 Medical School ; was in the United 

 States service during the " late unpleas- 

 antness," in the medical department, 

 but resigned in 1863, and began the 

 study of law, which profession he has 

 been actively engaged in since 1869. 



Mr. Pond began the keeping of bees 

 in 1866, being induced thereto by ac- 

 cidentally running across a copy of 

 Langstroth's matchless work, "The 

 Hive and Honey-Bee." He has kept 

 bees only as a recreation, but has studied 

 to a considerable extent, in order that 

 he might know what he was doing, and 

 to learn the reasons therefor. 



Keeping bees, with him, has been a 

 labor of love. He has carefully studied 

 their habits, and tested, experimentally, 

 nearly all points that in theory seemed 

 practicable and valuable. 



Mr. Pond was the first to call atten- 

 tion to the matter of close spacing of 

 frames, and he still believes the method 

 of so working will produce the best re- 

 sults. 



He has never kept bees for profit, and 

 only from 5 to 20 colonies at a time ; 

 hence, in some apiarian things, he has 

 had more time to learn the " whys " and 

 " wherefores " than one who has been 

 constantly endeavoring to make a finan- 

 cial success of bee-keeping. 



Xlae Queen, some one has said, is not 

 a ruler in any sense of the word. She is a 

 mother — the egg layer — and is governed 

 and controlled at every step by the bees. 

 Slie is under the direction of tlie worker 

 bees. She does not lead the swarm, but is 

 generally the last to leave the hive, and 

 quite often has to be sought out and driven 

 from the hive by the bees. 



