Abstract: In a device for spreading tobacco leaves which, subsequent to having been moistened, are smoothed by passage in their transverse direction between a base and a sweeping brush or an analogous smoothing tool, said tool may be "broken" from its normal or straight operating position into a position in which its ends are raised higher from the base than its center portion. The operator is thus left more space for his hands that seize the leading edge of the tobacco leaf to be pulled across the base, and the smoothing operation at the largest portion of the tobacco leaf can be started earlier than the smoothing operation closer to the point and stalk ends of the leaf.