==Spring-sown Onions== require to be put on rich, mellow ground, the top spit of which is of a somewhat fine texture, and at the time of sowing almost dry.  Having been well dug and manured in good time, the top spit only should be dug over when it is finally made ready for the seed.  The work must be done with care, and the beds should be marked off in breadths of four feet, with one-foot alleys between.  Break all lumps with the spade, and work the surface to a regular and finely crumbled texture.  Light soil should be trodden over to consolidate it, and then the surface may be carefully touched with the rake to prepare it for the seed.  March and April are the usual months for spring sowing, although in mild districts seed is sometimes put in as early as January.  Space the rows from nine to twelve inches apart, according to the character of the sort and the size of bulbs required.  The drills must be drawn across the bed, at right angles to the alleys, for when drawn the other way it is difficult to keep the ground properly weeded.  For a crop of Onions intended for storing, the seed should be only just covered with fine earth taken from the alleys and thrown over, after which the drills must be lightly trodden, the surface again touched over with the rake, and if the soil is dry and works nicely, the business may be finished by gently patting the bed all over with the back of the spade.  If the ground is damp or heavy, this final touch may be omitted, as the Onion makes a weak grass that cannot easily push through earth that is caked over it.  But speaking generally, an Onion bed newly sown should be quite smooth as if finished with a roller.  To the beginner this will appear a protracted and complicated story, but the expert will attest that Onions require and will abundantly pay for special management.

As soon as possible after the crop is visible the ground between should be delicately chopped over with the hoe to check the weeds that will then be rising.  Immediately the rows are defined a first thinning should be made with a small hoe, care being taken to leave a good plant on the ground.  The next thinning will produce young Onions for saladings, and this kind of thinning may be continued by removing plants equally all over the bed to insure an even crop, the final distance for bulbing being about six inches.  Keep the hoe at work, for if weeds are allowed to make way, the crop will be seriously injured.  When Onions are doing well they lift themselves up and =sit= on the earth, needing light and air upon their bulbs to the very axis whence the roots diverge.  If weeds spread amongst them the bulbs are robbed of air and light, and their keeping properties are impaired.  But in the use of the hoe it is important not to loosen the ground or to draw any earth towards the bulbs.  When all the thinning has been done, and the weeds are kept down, it will perhaps be observed that in places there are clusters of bulbs fighting for a place and rising out of the ground together as