Having ascertained the kind and quantity of food allowed to the slaves, it is important to know something of its _quality_, that we may judge of the amount of sustenance which it contains. For, if their provisions are of an inferior quality, or in a damaged state, their power to sustain labor must be greatly diminished. Thomas Clay, Esq. of Georgia, from an address to the Georgia Presbytery, 1834, speaking of the quality of the corn given to the slaves, says, "There is _often a defect here_." Rev. Horace Moulton, a Methodist clergyman at Marlboro, Mass. and five years a resident of Georgia. "The food, or 'feed' of slaves is generally of the _poorest_ kind." The "Western Medical Reformer," in an article on the diseases peculiar to negroes, by a Kentucky physician, says of the diet of the slaves; "They live on a coarse, _crude, unwholesome diet_." Professor A.G. Smith, of the New York Medical College; formerly a physician in Louisville, Kentucky. I have myself known numerous instances of large families of _badly fed_ negroes swept off by a prevailing epidemic; and it is well known to many intelligent planters in the south, that the best method of preventing that horrible malady, _Chachexia Africana_, is to feed the negroes with _nutritious_ food. 4. NUMBER AND TIME OF MEALS EACH DAY. In determining whether or not the slaves suffer for want of food, the number of hours intervening, and the labor performed between their meals, and the number of meals each day, should be taken into consideration. Philemon Bliss, Esq., a lawyer in Elyria, Ohio, and member of the Presbyterian church, who lived in Florida, in 1834, and 1835. "The slaves go to the field in the morning; they carry with them corn meal wet with water, and at _noon_ build a fire on the ground and bake it in the ashes. After the labors of the day are over, they take their _second_ meal of ash-cake." President Edwards, the younger. "The slaves eat _twice_ during the day." Mr. Eleazar Powell, Chippewa, Beaver county, Penn., who resided in Mississippi in 1836 and 1837. "The slaves received _two_ meals during the day. Those who have their food cooked for them get their breakfast about eleven o'clock, and their other meal _after night_." Mr. Nehemiah Caulkins, Waterford, Conn., who spent eleven winters in North Carolina. "The _breakfast_ of the slaves was generally about _ten or eleven_ o'clock." Rev. Phineas Smith, Centreville, N.Y., who has lived at the south some years. "The slaves have usually _two_ meals a day, viz: at eleven o'clock and at night." Rev. C.S. Renshaw, Quincy, Illinois--the testimony of a Virginian. "The slaves have _two_ meals a day. They breakfast at from ten to eleven, A.M., and eat their supper at from six to nine or ten at night, as the season and crops may be." The preceding testimony establishes the following points.