I grew up on a farm in east central Illinois in the 1950s and '60s and remember the hedgerows along the township gravel roads which were on a grid a mile on a s

I grew up on a farm in east central Illinois in the 1950s and '60s and remember the hedgerows along the township gravel roads which were on a grid a mile on a side. There were pheasants and quail and I don't remember how many other species of birds; no doubt less than the hedges in Britain, but still considerable. I don't recall when the hedges were removed but I think in that area they were gone by the 1970s. What a loss! And only in one lifetime.