Clay mineralogical analysis of paddy soils in Nagasaki Prefecture indicated the presence of smeetite, vermiculite, clay mica, chlorite, 2:1 mineral-chlorite intergrade, and kaolin mineral. The application of Q-mode factor analysis to the paddy soils using the contents of 6 minerals in the clay fraction and the clay content of the soil as variables enabled to classify 71 paddy soils into 4 groups including 10 subgroups. Group I (23 soils) was dominated by smectite, group II (14 soils) was high in intergrade or vermiculite followed by kaolin mineral, group III (20 soils) was dominated by kaolin mineral, and group IV (14 soils) was characterized by a low clay content.The groups were correlated with the rice yields of 1982, 1983, 1985, and 1986. A high positive correlation was observed with the year with optimum weather conditions, and the yield generally increased in the order of group IV