As you strolled into the Yard this past week, your books under your arm and your heart on your sleeve, you may have noticed something amiss: namely the strong smell of feces.

There were no two ways around it, this week the yard reeked of shit. We are not talking about metaphorical shit, like what that kid in your philosophy section spins when he hasn’t done any of the reading and also he smoked WAY too much list night.

Fly-by decided not to stand idly by while our noses were assaulted. No, we decided to investigate. Find out why the Yard smells so bad after the jump.

The smell in the yard is part of the Harvard’s totally organic maintenance of the grounds, according to Harvard Yard Ops. On Tuesday, Yard Ops made a new organic fertilizer and well…fertilized the yard with it. This means that the smell, thank goodness, is only temporary and should be fading soon. Wayne Carbone of Yard Ops said that typically the Yard only has to be fertilized twice a year so the smell should not be a regular occurrence.

The bottom line: never fear, soon the Yard will go back to smelling the way it always does—that rare combination of naiveté, pretension, and the collegiate spirit.