Critical Thinking An agricultural study is comparing the harvest volume of two types of barley. The site for the experiment is bordered by a river. The fi eld is divided into eight plots of approximately the same size. The experiment calls for the plots to be blocked into four plots per block. Then, two plots of each block will be randomly assigned to one of the two barley types.

Two blocking schemes are shown below, with one block indicated by the white region and the other by the grey region. Which blocking scheme, A or B, would be better? Explain.