There are commercial top dressers available that allow precise control over the amount of material deposited. Perhaps your local rental center has one available, if not see if you can become freinds with your local golf course superintendent.
If this fails it can be shoveled on but with several acres to do it will be time consuming and hard on the body. The shoveling method does not allow for a very precise depth either.
Bill
87 Ingersoll 444, 84 Ingersoll224/'44 GreavlyL/60'sGreavlyL/49 Ford 8N
How much do you have to do? If it is les then an acre, I would just pile it on then rake it out. Any more then that, and you will need somthing else. I have seen one tool that looks like a lawn roller, but has mesh over part of it. You put the compost in the roller, and it falls out as you roll it over the lawn.