Contents of available sulphur in the surface soil and subsoil of upland field in Hunan province were analyzed, and responses to sulphur fertilizers were studied on peanut and rapeseed from 1997 to 2000 in Hunan province, China. The experiments indicated that contents of available sulphur in the surface soil were lower than that in the subsoil of upland field in Hunan province. About 49% of the soil samples had available sulphur in the surface soil lower than 30mg/kg, and 21% lower than 16mg/kg. Soil available S content and S deficient percentage vary with soil parent material. Soils (0~20cm) derived from river alluvium were the lowest available sulphur content, being 16.4±4.80 mg/kg and 64% of the soil samples had available sulphur content lower than 16mg/kg. The content of available sulphur in the soils derived from purple sandy shale was 28.3±3.21 mg/kg and 37% of the soilshad available sulphur content lower than 16mg/kg. Responses to sulphur fertilizers varied with type and application rate of sulphur fertilizer used on peanut and rapeseed. Response to SSP(single superphosphate) was the best in monoculture crop system, and so was the rate of 30kg/hm-2. But when S fertilizing was used continuously in the rotation system, the fertilizer was in the order of SSP > S95 > ES(elemental sulpher) > Gyp(gypsum) in terms of crop response. The economic profit of sulphur fertilizer on peanut was 1.8~11.4 times that on rapeseed. Residual effect of sulphur fertilizer also varied with type and rate of the fertilizer. Besides, sulphur fertilizer increased oil content and N uptake of rapeseed and peanut and The response from peanut was higher than that from rapeseed.