The main aim of this investigation was to study trace element contents in the Finnish arable land on crop and dairy farms. The crop farms were located on clay soils and the dairy farms on finesand soils. The agua regia extractable trace elements in the top- and subsoil of the clay soils at the crop farms were two to three times those of the finesand soils at the dairy farms. Most of the elements were significantly correlated with the clay content.
Quantitatively more Cd, Pb and Hg enriched in the clay soils on the crop farms in southwestern Finland than in the finesand soils on the dairy farms in Ostrobothnia. However, dairy farming seemed to enrich the topsoil with more Cr, Cu, Se, V and Zn than crop farming, on average
