How should one ask the age of a hedgerow? At one time it was as simple as counting species, but practitioner Barnes and academic Williamson (landscape history, U. of East Anglia) find a much more accurate way to discover who built hedgerows and why, how hedgerows figured in the local ecology and how they impacted the local economy. Using Norfolk as an example they examine regional differences in hedgerows, in the ways they rest on the landscape and interact with it, and how different cultures at different times formed and managed them. As they do so they present a sophisticated method for finding the history of hedgerows of a variety of regions, and explore how the humans creating them considered local natural situations, transportation needs, the habit of local livestock, and the agricultural practice that would most likely lead to improving yields. Distributed by The David Brown Book Company. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)