On a clear day at Boyden Farms in Cambridge, in a field abutting the Lamoille River, a truck belonging to Working Dog Septic drove out to spread manure over a fallow section of the land.
The truck stopped briefly by a red container of lime. When the tank was opened and the lime mixed into the liquid waste, a wave of excrement smell, bright and notable but not overwhelming, wafted back on the wind before subsiding as the tank was closed.
The truck then began its spreading, casting brown waves as it drove, and another burst of noticeable smell was brought over to the nearby residential area on an easterly wind. When the truck finished its brief spreading and was gone, so too was the smell.