11 JUNE 1983, Page 22

Wall to wall

Sir: Given a decade or two dry-stone walls will in their turn have replaced the bar- barous mess of barbed wire in P. J. Kavanagh's area (Postscript, 21 May). As more and more of the walls collapse the farmer will be forced to rebuild them, for the stone will begin to spread across his fields, causing damage to plough, harrow and the like. To remove them would be a herculean (and expensive) task and, if he could, where would he dump them?

Those ancient walls were originally built in part to solve the problem of how to dispose of the stone when land was cleared for cultivation.

Bryan N. Brooke

112 Balham Park Road, London SW12