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 (; , ''Jyske Halvø'' or ''Cimbriske Halvø''; , ''Kimbrische Halbinsel'' or ''Jütische Halbinsel'') is a peninsula of Northern Europe that forms the continental portion of Denmark and part of northern Germany (Schleswig-Holstein). It ...

Early life and family

Dalgas was born on 16 July 1828 in

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

, 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 (18 October 1685, published 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 prac ...

, 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 The Royal Danish Army (; ; ) is the land-based branch of the Danish Armed Forces, together with the Danish Home Guard. For the last decade, the Royal Danish Army has undergone a massive transformation of structures, equipment and training method ...

as an officer of the Engineer Corps (today the ''

Ingeniørregimentet The Engineer Regiment () is a regiment in the Royal Danish Army with base in Skive (Denmark), Skive in Jutland. The soldiers of this regiment are trained in skills such as demolition, bomb disposal, bridge construction, defending against chemical ...

''). He mostly served as a highway engineer, reaching the rank of Lieutenant Colonel before he moved to the newly established civilian body of the Highway Authority. He also served as a

pioneer Pioneer commonly refers to a person who is among the first at something that is new to a community. A pioneer as a settler is among the first settling at a place that is new to the settler community. A historic example are American pioneers, perso ...

officer during the

First First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

and

Second Schleswig War The Second Schleswig War (; or German Danish War), 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. The war began on 1 Februar ...

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 in an area where there was no recent tree cover. There are three types of afforestation: natural Regeneration (biology), regeneration, agroforestry and Tree plantation, tree plan ...

of western Jutland. After Denmark's defeat in the Schleswig wars and the ensuing loss of territory, the removal of

hardpan In soil science, agriculture and gardening, hardpan or soil pan is a dense layer of soil, usually found below the uppermost topsoil layer. There are different types of hardpan, all sharing the general characteristic of being a distinct soil layer ...

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

heath A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and is characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a coole ...

s, 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 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, Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and app ...

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

Johan Dalgas Frisch Johan Dalgas Frisch (12 July 1930 – 22 June 2024) was a Brazilian engineer and ornithologist. Biography Frisch was born in São Paulo on 12 July 1930, the son of Danish immigrants Svend Frisch and Ellen Margareth Dalgas Frisch, who came to res ...

Honours

Enrico Dalgas was made a Knight of the

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

in 1864, received the Cross of Honour of the Order of the Dannebrog 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 Denmark, 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 51,782 (1 January 2025)

and Dalgas Boulevard in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

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 Kingdom of the Two Sicilies people Danish naturalists Danish military engineers 19th-century Danish army officers Danish conservationists Danish civil servants Environmental engineers 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 Danish engineers