Take a whiff. What does it smell like to you?

Evidently one visitor to Holmes County has a "strong" opinion, judging from a re-cent letter that came via fax.

I can't help myself, I simply have to respond. But first, here's a portion of that letter:

"Can you make out an agreement with the farmers on ways of dealing with the manure and livestock odor, such as chemicals or sprays. Another problem which annoys me, is look at any typical pasture field and you will see lumps of manure, which should be cleaned up and used for fertilizer, and the lumps which fall onto the road should also be cleaned up by county engineers because it looks filthy and can spread disease."

Now as a died-in-the-wool country girl, I've shoveled my share of "fertilizer" over the years. (Mind you, I'm not talking barnyard dung only, here.) I have to admit that at times the smell can overwhelm those not accustomed to it.

I prefer the smell of sheep or horse manure, myself. And now that I'm acquainted with llamas, living next to the Mohican Forest Llama Farm as I do, a llama's scent falls in that category, as well. Steer manure I can tolerate, but dairy waste has a distinct rotten-silage-sour-milk aroma that tends to make me a little nauseous.

The hog smell poses a different problem altogether -- and since I grew up with that farmyard perfume, I consider myself somewhat of an authority on that one. Daddy always told us that odor "smelled like money" to him. It just made me sneeze like crazy.

That leaves only chickens, and I hesitate even to comment on the whole poultry end of things -- except to say chicken manure grows the best tomatoes and strawberries you'll ever hope to find.

However my daughter holds her own view when it comes to chickens: she always tried to run down any wandering chickens on the loose whenever she would drive in our mile-long lane. I have to admit, I tend to share her opinion of poultry. They're definitely some of the most brainless animals God ever created.

But you can see the problem with farm odors: the ones we get used to, we seldom notice at all, yet to visitors unfamiliar with them, farm odors can give a definite offense.

But let's turn the tables a moment; how does a country nose react in the city?

As true farm kids, whenever my siblings and I would visit our city grandma, the factory stench and auto exhaust fumes offended our country-bred noses far more than the aroma of our own "good, clean country air." We'd tease each other and say we had to go back home just to "blow the stink off."

So you see, it all boils down to a matter of perspective, doesn't it?

I always figured that in order to understand those who differ from us, we needed to examine the differences with an open mind, not try to change them into something more aesthetically pleasing to our own tastes.

After all, one man's odor is another man's perfume! Even a skunk will tell you that.

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