Relatively fragile articles, such as cigarettes, are formed into blocks consisting of three rows with a middle row containing one cigarette less than the outer rows. The cigarettes in the middle row are also laterally offset by approximately one-half the diameter of a cigarette from the cigarettes in the outer rows as a result of forming the blocks in a linear array of feed shafts which, from a lower support surface, extend upwardly at an angle other than perpendicular. A shaft disposed at one end of the array is closed at the level of the lower two rows and a multi-armed block slide is provided for pushing the cigarettes which define the block from an extraction zone, located at the bottom of the shafts, into a receiver.