Described herein is a method and apparatus for transferring rods, or tubes, comprising feeding a plurality of rods into a hopper, feeding the rods through a hopper using agitation and gravity to align the rods in a single-file stacked configuration, and transferring the rods with pushers on a continuous cable so that that the rods may be transferred for insertion in the tobacco column. This method and apparatus may utilize one or more drums for transferring rods from the hopper to the pushers on the continuous cable.