Spring has officially sprung, and the streets of Canton, N.Y. are filled with the farm-fresh scent of cow manure, as they do each year around this time.
While people traveling through town might block their noses and feel nausea at the strong smell, locals and St. Lawrence University students have grown to associate the smell with home and understand its importance for proper agriculture within the community.
Livestock Resource Educator of the Cornell Cooperative Extension Betsy Hodge says the smell of cow manure is an indication that farmers are making good use out of it. “Even though it smells bad it’s really important. I know someone is handling their farm with good manure management,” she says.
Hodge also says that there aren’t real dangers to the smell either. “It’s really just non-toxic fermented digested grass and corn. Nothing poisonous. And for farmers it’s a valuable resource, it keeps them from having to apply commercial fertilizers,” she says.
Abigail Esty ’19 sees how essential agriculture is to the Canton community and upstate New York in general. “It’s incredibly important and they do try to do it when it’s still cold enough out that the smell doesn’t spread too much,” she says. “It is a lot, and I mean, I come from a town that is very much agriculturally-based, so it does remind me of home, and like spring-time, as much as it does just smell like shit.”
John Newman, head Track and Field coach at St. Lawrence University, grew up on a dairy farm, and when his stress headaches at school grew bad, the powerful farm scent comforted him. “Once I started smelling manure, I started feeling at home. The bus route went by other farms and I would start feeling better, knowing I would be home soon,” he says.
“I can personally tell the difference between horse poop and cow manure,” proudly states Kayla Beck ’21. As a track and field athlete who bears the smell each day on her runs through town, she doesn’t believe there are negative health effects. “I don’t think of it as a dirty smell. I think ah! It’s a farm! There’s animals and fertilizer. I like farms,” she says.
An anonymous worker from the Noble Farm in Canton, N.Y. also does not foresee any side effects of the smell. “I have lived on a farm my entire life, my dad has lived on a farm his entire life, and it hasn’t hurt us an entire bit,” he says.
Although most students and residents are accustomed to the smell, Leah Livernois ’21, from Norwood, N.Y., definitely notices the smell. “It makes me have nausea,” she says. Livernois is one of the few who feels strongly affected by it, despite only living 20 minutes outside of Canton. “I am not around it a lot so when I do smell it, I can tell it’s there, I don’t think I have adjusted,” she says.
For those who aren’t accustomed to the smell, Nick Vielhauer ’20 lends advice to dealing with the stench: “If you don’t want to smell cow poop don’t smell. It’s a byproduct of where you live,” he says. Cow manure means home for many Canton residents, even if it’s not as nice as fresh laundry.