When making an emergency landing it is always better to land and then crash than to crash and then land.
This is a last desperate attempt to avoid hitting the hedge on the way into a field.
If one is flying at the best glide speed (adjusted for the conditions) then flying faster or slower will always reduce the distance covered.
When one is faced with a situation where the best glide speed is going to put the aircraft into the hedge and it isn't possible to adjust the configuration (reduce flap, retract the gear etc) then the following desperate measure may avoid passing through a hedge at flying speed;
Lower the nose and move the aim point to just short of the hedge thus gaining some airspeed. At an appropriate point raise the nose and "float" the aircraft over the hedge and once clear lower the nose asap to try and avoid the stall.
The landing will never be pritty (if it is then one probably did not need to use the desperate measure in the first place) but it is better from a personal survival point of view than hitting a solid object in the air at speed!
Engine failure in the mountains could also benifit from the above if the "float" was used to clear a ridge thus placing the aircraft at some height above a valley floor.
Regards,
DFC