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Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Manure
















There is a small farm in the countryside near where I live with a sign that reads 'Bag your own manure.'

4 comments:

Ms Baroque said...

See why I don't live in the country?

Mark Granier said...

I'm always surprised at what you can dig up with a little googling. Your pic reminded me of something quite specific, John Berger on shit. Here's the very (back)passage:

"Cow and horse dung, as muck goes, are relatively agreeable. You can even become nostalgic about them. They smell of fermented grain, and on the far side of their smell there is hay and grass. Chicken shit is disagreeable and rasps the throat because of the quantity of ammonia. When you are cleaning out the henhouse, you’re glad to go to the door and take a deep breath of fresh air. Pig and human excrement, however, smell the worst because men and pigs are carnivorous and their appetites are indiscriminate. The smell includes the sickeningly sweet one of decay. And on the far side of it is death."

Ach, we're such nasty wee beasties really.

puthwuth said...

Has John Berger been ripping off Francis Ponge then? I don't have the text of the piece about dung from 'Siding with Things' to hand, but they sound mightly similar to me.

Mark Granier said...

Maybe, but the above is also very John Berger. Must get Ponge's Selected.