The apparatus is a spring system on forage harvester feedrolls. The upper forward feedroll has two concentric springs on each side. The outer spring is operative over the whole range of displacement. The inner spring exerts tensioning force on the feedroll only as of a certain minimal lifting of the feedroll. The rear upper feedroll has one spring on each side. This one spring has a substantially smaller spring force than the forward spring package. The feedroll supporting linkages are arranged with complementary and cooperating cam surfaces which are disposed so that, when the forward feedroll is lifted above a predetermined minimum value, the rearward feedroll is also lifted thereby (to a lesser degree) without even any lifting force from the crop material passing therebelow.