Soil – similarly to air and water – is a non-renewable constituent of the natural environment. Chemical, physical and biological properties of soil are influenced by natural soil-forming processes as well as agricultural and non-agricultural human activity. Therefore the properties and quality of soil does not only depend on the bedrock where a given soil type developed but also on the method of land use (cultivation), use of chemical and organic fertilizers, use of plant protection agents (pesticides), and also on the impact of pollution in the air and water produced as a result of human activity (e.g. heavy metals, gases – SO2 which cause acid rains).

      In the Cieszyn area, pseudopodzolic soil, brown soil, leached brown soil and brown rendzina soil predominate and in the Olza valley alluvial soil also occurs. These are fertile soils, rich in humus and mineral elements. Due to high levels of precipitation, these soils are subjected to leaching processes, i.e. the washing away of calcium carbonate from the surface layers, which results in acid, neutral – but rarely alkaline reaction. Soil forming rocks include Upper and Lower Cieszyn Shales and Cieszyn Limestones as well as loess, loess-like silts, silty clays and clayey sands. The soils which developed on shales are rich, clayey and deep, whereas the soils which originated on limestones are shallow and similar to rendzina soil. In mechanical terms most of the soils are hard to cultivate.

      Soil-agricultural classification in Cieszyn was conducted in the 1970s and at present it does not reflect the classification of soils into so-called complexes of agricultural usefulness.

Agricultural use of soils
The amount of agricultural land (located within the borders of farms) in Cieszyn was about 1.511 ha. Classification of these soils according to soil quality classification is as follow:
• class II – approx. 19 ha
• class IIIa and IIIb – approx. 600 ha
• class III and IV (meadows and pastures) – approx. 340 ha
• class IVa and IVb – approx. 507 ha
• class V and VI – approx. 45 ha
The total amount of arable land is approx. 735 ha (approx. 50% of agricultural land), orchards – 69 ha, area of meadows approx. 100 ha and area of pastures approx. 240 ha.

Farms
The total number of farms in Cieszyn is 343 (data as of 31.10.2002) and they can be divided up as follows on the basis of their area:
• 1-2 ha- 196 farms
• 2-5 ha - 103 farms
• 5-7 ha - 15 farms
• 7-10 ha - 13 farms
• 10-50 ha - 14 farms
• over 50 ha - 2 farms
Because of the fact that it is profitable to carry out agricultural production, it has been observed for several years that large farms lease land from small farms (with land of up to 7 ha).