The effects of four land use types on soil physicochemical properties in the middle reaches of Yajiang River were studied by field investigation and laboratory measurement and volume fractal characteristics soil particles and their relation with soil particle size distribution and soil properties were studied and discussed. The results showed that physicochemical properties of 0–30 cm soil varied greatly under different land use types(P<0.05), soil bulk densities under different land use types increased with the increase of soil depth and showed an order of sparse shrub > farmland> wild grass ground > artificial forest land, while total porosity, capillary porosity, saturated moisture capacity and capillary water content showed inverse trends. Silts and sands were predominant in soils under four land use types, the percentages of clays only ranged from 0.36% and 4.27%, and soil textures were dominated by sand. In 0–30 cm soil, average volume fractal dimensions were in an order of farmland>wild grass ground>artificial forest land>sparse shrub. The artificial forest had best soil structure, which were relatively loose with good permeability, while fractal dimension of the sparse shrub was the smallest are affected by the gravel and with the weakest water and fertilizer retention capacities. The volume fractal dimension of soil particles had an extremely significant negative correlation with the volume percentage of sands (r = –0.873，P<0.01) while an extremely significant positive correlation with the volume percentage of silts and clays(r = 0.860，P <0.01; r = 0.913，P <0.01), which indicated that, to some extent, the fractal dimension of soil particles can be used as an index to assess soil erosion in the studied area. The volume fractal dimension of soil particles was positively correlated with total porosity, capillary porosity, saturated water content and capillary moisture content, but negatively correlated with bulk density and organic matter.