Farmington, the Cotswold stone quarriers who continually develop new ways of promoting their natural stone, are now \'rewarding\' builders merchants who stock their stone but do not sell much of it with bottles of syrup of figs.

The message is obvious, but just in case any of the recipients do not get it, Farmington managing director Martin Robins has included a note pointing out that syrup of figs promote movement.

On the fireplace side, retailers who stock Farmington fireplaces have been sent packets of forget-me-not seeds overprinted with the words \'don\'t forget Farmington\' and a reminder that it is the nright time of year to plant forget-me-nots and to sell Farmington fireplaces.

One of Farmington\'s on-going battles is against reconstituted stone. In that fight they have gained further ammunition - which, of course, they are firing out into the market place - from a planning authority.

The relevant part reads: "You will be glad to know that I do not disagree with you at all regarding the better weathering qualities of the natural stone at the site compared with the reconstructed stone used to the rear.

"I can assure you that we had an immense battle with the developers to \'persuade\' them to use any natural stone at all and would have much preferred natural stone throughout."Interestingly, the developers of that estate have recently cited it as an example of where it is \'impossible to tell the difference between natural and reconstructed stone\'. Needless to say, we did not agree and readily accepted their challenge to tell them which was natural and which was reconstructed. We won - they lost! The point had been made, such that even they had to accept that there were times when we were justified in requiring natural materials."