MAN and mouse have never been best buddies — except, surprisingly, when it comes to which sweetcorn should become top of the cobs.

For given the taste test, rodent and human appear to be sweetly in harmony.

No, I jest not. It just happens that a chance discovery on a seed firm's trial ground last year proved that mice and men have similar preferences.

In addition to taking cobs home for cooking and eating, Mr Fothergill's taste test team also sampled a little of each sweetcorn variety raw while standing in the field.

These cobs were then dropped at the end of each row and added to the compost heap at the day's end. Last summer the cobs were left overnight and the next day staff found that, while some discarded cobs had only been nibbled by mice, three varieties had been well munched — precisely the same three which had come top in the human team's raw and cooked taste tests.

To continue the "experiment," the cobs were left for a further two days . . . and the mice's preferences were confirmed.

Both human and rodent tests revealed Sparrow — an F1 — as the tasters' favourite, with Sweet Sultan — also an F1 — in second and F1 Swift in third spot. Sparrow was remarkable for its very sweet, creamy flavour and texture, with the bright large, yellow kernels produced on big cobs.

A mid-early choice, Sparrow was ready for picking a few days earlier than its nearest rival which, while sweet, was not considered quite as creamy as Sparrow. Third-placed Swift delivered slightly shorter plants and yielded a little less than the others, though maturing the earliest.

Despite not being as highly bred as the top three, Passion, a standard supersweet variety, filled fourth place. Tasters noted its rather smaller kernels had a little more crunch than its competitors.

All these varieties are offered in the A-Z Flower and Vegetable Seed Catalogue 2010 and all except Sweet Sensation on the shelves of Mr Fothergill's retail stockists.

● To request a catalogue call 0845 3710518 or go online at mr-fothergills.co.uk