apparatus is disclosed for spreading and distributing particles such as glue - coated wood fibers onto a moving web including rotatable axles disposed transverse to the direction of movement of the moving web with each axle including a number of distributors rotatable with the axles and disposed generally obliquely with respect to the axes of the axles , each of the axles disposed at successively increasing heights from the moving web in its direction of movement whereby each of the distributors extends into the wood fiber particles comprising the moving web and distributes the particles across the moving web .