From Benjamin Franklin to Catharine Greene, [13 January? 1772]
To [Catharine Greene]7
ALS (letterbook draft; incomplete): American Philosophical Society
[January 13?, 17728]
[First part missing:] I Send you a Copy of the Receipt, hoping that you may be a means of introducing so valuable a Manufacture into your Country;9 the more valuable, as the Cream is saved, and thence the Farm affords more Butter; at the same time that the Cheese is of so much greater Value. The principal Cause of its Goodness is perhaps the Heating of the Milk, which I understand is not usual in our Method. After some Experiments I think you will succeed in it. Remember not to be discouraged by a few Disappointments at the Beginning. I send you a Piece of right Parmesan, that you may be acquainted with it, and know when you have hit it.
Present my respectful Compliments to Mr. Greene and kiss the Girls for me.10 My best Wishes attend you all. Believe me ever Your affectionate Friend
B Franklin
7. One of BF’s oldest friends, who has appeared frequently in earlier volumes.
8. The date of the immediately following draft in the letterbook, that of BF to Ward below.
9. BF here deleted “and thro’ you, Rhode-island may become famous”; the deletion establishes to whom he was writing. For her interest in cheesemaking many years before see above, VI, 184.
10. For her husband William and for their daughters see William G. Roelker, ed., Benjamin Franklin and Catharine Ray Greene, Their Correspondence … (Philadelphia, 1949), pp. 4, 29–30.