Riddle of the stones for Dales barn builders

I can understand that "through" stones are needed to tie the outer skin to the inner skin of stone, but why do they need to project? A farmer in Swaledale answered my question by saying, "we hav' always done 'em like that". I think he is right but why? To provide a support for a type of scaffolding and as a water break have been regular replies but both are unconvincing. An authoritative answer would be welcome.

From: Peter Johnston, Ivy Cottage, Angram Road, Long Marston, York

From: Mrs Jean Blackburn, High Grantley, Ripon, North Yorkshire.

THE lovely photos of old tractors (Country Week, August 14) took me back to the farming days of the early 1930s which I shared with my late husband. At the start of the last war we had to plough extra acreage, and our horseman, John Middleton, became a full-time tractor man. It must have been a wrench, as he loved the three big horses in his care. I seem to recall that the first tractor we had was a grey "Fergie", probably second hand. Our son was born in 1947 and he remembers how he loved riding in a Fordson (while his two sisters were at school) at four years old, well wrapped up, sitting on the toolbox, fortified by the occasional sip from John's flask – a strange mixture of cocoa and Ovaltine! He learned to drive the tractor under strict supervision, when very young. One harvest my husband had rigged up a pulley system to drag the heavy bags of corn on threshing days up the granary steps, using the tractor travelling forward and backward a few yards down below. This was Roger's job, in school holidays, much enjoyed. But one day he rushed up to the house – "Mum, there's a man in uniform coming up the drive on a motorbike, do you think he's a policeman who has seen me driving the tractor?" He wasn't, but as soon as he was old enough he took the tests, practical and written, for tractor drivers. I do enjoy Country Week and the articles revive old memories.

From: Malcolm Rainforth, Southfield Avenue, Ripon, North Yorkshire.

AS a vintage tractor restorer and judge as my hobby, I must correct Steven W Beasley (Country Week, September 4) on his comments and his Fordson Standard "N". I am sorry Steven, your beliefs and comments are way wide of the mark. Your Standard Fordson for a start should be green and the narrow wing model started 1942-43.

The only Standard Fordson painted blue was the "Water Washer" air cleaner model which was remodelled in 1937-38 to oil air cleaner

and new paint colour of Harvest Gold. At the outbreak of the Second World War these tractors were painted green so they were not

easily seen by enemy aircraft.

With regard to the wheels, various people made them, including Dunlop. There is an explanation that if you found traces of blue under the correct green this tractor is a "bitsa".

CW 18/9/10