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Fowl Smelling

A brochure with a manure-odor scratch 'n' sniff might not sound like a very good civic advertisement. But it's what Ottawa County, Michigan, is using to provide a reality check to city folk who hope to move out to the country for the fresh air, quietude and sweet smell of hay.

A brochure with a manure-odor scratch 'n' sniff might not sound like a very good civic advertisement. But it's what Ottawa County, Michigan, is using to provide a reality check to city folk who hope to move out to the country for the fresh air, quietude and sweet smell of hay.

Ottawa County is the state's fastest-growing county among those with populations greater than 200,000. It's also Michigan's largest agricultural county, with farmers growing fruits and vegetables as well as running large livestock operations including chickens, turkeys, swine and dairy cattle. Farmers fire up their tractors at all hours, create noise and dust, spray pesticides, apply fertilizer and spread manure.

Not exactly what many urbanites were expecting when they bought a plot of land to build a dream getaway in the country. "It's amazing to us how naïve city people can be moving into the country," says Mark Knudsen, director of the county's planning department. "They have no conception of what goes on on a farm."

New neighbors commonly call and complain to officials about the odors and the noise. But Michigan is a "right to farm" state and there is little recourse for homeowners who built houses right next to fields.

So the county created a brochure that is being distributed through real estate agents and mortgage bank companies, warning new homebuyers of what they're in for--before they make the big purchase. It's too soon to tell whether the brochure is having an impact on country home sales.

But the scratch 'n' sniff sample is proving irresistible, despite being labeled "manure odor." Curiosity overcomes people. "It takes forever to get it off their fingers, and they wished they'd never scratched it," chuckles Knudsen. "The good part is, it's not real manure."

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