Enrico Mylius Dalgas K.¹ D.M. F.M.I (16 July 1828 – 16 April 1894) was a Danish engineer who pioneered the soil melioration of

Jutland Jutland ( da, Jylland ; german: Jütland ; ang, Ēota land ), known anciently as the Cimbric or Cimbrian Peninsula ( la, Cimbricus Chersonesus; da, den Kimbriske Halvø, links=no or ; german: Kimbrische Halbinsel, links=no), is a peninsula of ...

Early life and family

Dalgas was born on 16 July 1828 in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, where his father Jean Antoine was the Danish consul. He was baptised Heinrich D. Dalgas. His mother Johanne Tomine née Stibolt was the daughter of a Danish naval officer from a distinguished family. Jean Antoine was descended from Huguenots who settled in Switzerland after the

edict of Fontainebleau The Edict of Fontainebleau (22 October 1685) was an edict issued by French King Louis XIV and is also known as the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The Edict of Nantes (1598) had granted Huguenots the right to practice their religion without s ...

, whence his grandfather Antoine settled in Denmark. His brother, Carlo Dalgas, was a noted animal artist. When he was 7, his father died and his mother brought him back to Denmark.

Career

Dalgas joined the Danish Army as an officer of the Engineer Corps (today the ''

Ingeniørregimentet The Engineer Regiment ( da, Ingeniørregimentet) is a regiment in the Royal Danish Army with base in Skive in Jutland. The soldiers of this regiment are trained in skills such as shooting, blasting, setting up camp, and much more. The engineer t ...

''). He mostly served as a highway engineer, reaching the rank of

Lieutenant Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

before he moved to the newly established civilian body of the Highway Authority. He also served as a

pioneer Pioneer commonly refers to a settler who migrates to previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land. In the United States pioneer commonly refers to an American pioneer, a person in American history who migrated west to join in settling and dev ...

officer during the

First First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

and

Second Schleswig War The Second Schleswig War ( da, Krigen i 1864; german: Deutsch-Dänischer Krieg) also sometimes known as the Dano-Prussian War or Prusso-Danish War was the second military conflict over the Schleswig-Holstein Question of the nineteenth century. T ...

s, during which two of his brothers died.

Soil melioration and related work

Dalgas applied the knowledge and skills he gained as a military engineer toward the reclamation and

afforestation Afforestation is the establishment of a forest or stand of trees (forestation) in an area where there was no previous tree cover. Many government and non-governmental organizations directly engage in afforestation programs to create forests a ...

of western Jutland. After Denmark's defeat in the Schleswig wars and the ensuing loss of territory, the removal of hardpan was considered a national priority. Working on roads across Jutland gave him an intimate knowledge of the different soils present in Denmark, and the organisational skill he gained as a military officer and civil servant helped him manage large planting and forestry projects. As he performed assessments of road damage, he got to know locals and learn about their concerns, gaining knowledge as well as many allies who helped him in his endeavours. Dalgas was among the leading forces behind the planting of heaths, for while they had been cultivated before, their widespread planting was an innovation that required much more organization. In 1867, Dalgas founded the Danish Heath Society (''Hedeselskabet''), with jurist Georg Morville and prominent Jutish landowner Ferdinand Mourier-Petersen. It later added a branch in northern Germany, the ''Haide-Cultur-Verein''. Dalgas wrote a number of books on land improvement, forestry, and the natural history of forests and heaths, as well as many pamphlets, and articles published in academic and popular periodicals on a wide range of topics, including agricultural science, mycology, and entomology. Dalgas's work was later used by German soil scientist Carl Emeis (among the founders of the ''Haide-Cultur-Verein'') as the basis for his theory on hardpan and heaths, the first work to explain the role of

humic acids Humic substances (HS) are organic compounds that are important components of humus, the major organic fraction of soil, peat, and coal (and also a constituent of many upland streams, dystrophic lakes, and ocean water). For a long era in the 19th ...

in soil.

Personal life

In 1855 Dalgas married Marie Magdalene Christiane Købke, daughter of Lieutenant Colonel Niels Christian Købke. They had three sons: , a forester and the director of the Danish Heath Society; , director of the Royal Porcelain Manufactory; and philosopher . On 16 April 1894, Dalgas died in

Aarhus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and approximately northwest ...

. They had at least one daughter, Ellen Margareth, who emigrated to Brazil and was the mother of engineer and naturalist Johan Dalgas Frisch.

Honours

Enrico Dalgas was made a Knight of the

Order of the Dannebrog The Order of the Dannebrog ( da, Dannebrogordenen) is a Danish order of chivalry instituted in 1671 by Christian V. Until 1808, membership in the order was limited to fifty members of noble or royal rank, who formed a single class known a ...

in 1864, received the

Cross of Honour of the Order of the Dannebrog A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is termed a sa ...

in 1867, received the Medal of Merit in Gold in 1875, and was made Commander 1st Class of the Dannebrog in 1887. Dalgas Avenue in Aarhus, Dalgasgade in

Herning Herning () is a Danish town in the Central Denmark Region of the Jutland peninsula. It is the main town and the administrative seat of Herning Municipality. Herning has a population of 50,565 (1 January 2022)Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

are named after him, and a number of Danish cities have erected statues of him.

Bibliography

* ''Oversigt over hederne i Jylland'', 1866 * ''Geografiske billeder I og II'', 1867–68 * ''Vejledning til træplantning'', 1871 * ''Den dybe reolpløjning'', 1872 * ''En hederejse i Hannover'', 1873 * ''Anvisning til anlæg af småplantninger'', 1875–83 * ''Hedemoser og Kærjorder'', 1876 * ''Om engvandring'', 1877 * ''Om plantning i Jylland'', 1877 * ''Hederne og deres Kultivering'', 1878

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dalgas, Enrico 1828 births 1894 deaths Soil scientists Foresters Danish naturalists Danish military engineers Danish military officers Danish conservationists Danish civil servants Environmental engineers 19th-century Danish scientists Recipients of the Cross of Honour of the Order of the Dannebrog Commanders First Class of the Order of the Dannebrog Recipients of the Medal of Merit (Denmark) Danish agronomists Burials at Nordre Cemetery Danish civil engineers 19th-century Neapolitan people 19th-century engineers 19th-century Danish military personnel