A glue applicating means is constructed with an elongated shoe floatingly mounted alongside of and urged toward a glue applicator roll by a fluid controlled biasing means. A longitudinally extending depression in the shoe is substantially closed by the glue roll to define a glue cavity to which glue is fed by a positive displacement pump. The shoe is mounted so that the downstream end of the shoe is movable away from the glue roll automatically as required to permit glue to exit from the cavity at the same rate it is supplied thereto. This provides what is effectively a self-adjusting nozzle or metering slot extending the full length of the shoe and through which glue is forced from the cavity to form a thin layer of uniform thickness on the outside of the glue roll.
