When Apple needed land for their $1 billion dollar data center the farmers who owned it decided they needed $1.7 million to sell. Not bad considering they bought it for $6,000 just 34 years ago.

“They told us to put a price on it and we did,” said Kathy Fulbright, 62, seated on a brown leather sofa in the living room of the home she and her husband built with the proceeds. The 49-acre property boasts a 4,200-square-foot house with a Jacuzzi in the master bathroom, as well as a manmade pond stocked with bass and catfish.

Other farmers in the area are apparently sizing up supercars should Google or Microsoft decide they simply must move into the neighborhood as well.

Apple meanwhile aims to finish the data center, dubbed "Project Dolphin" this year and we aim to keep speculating on just what they may use it for. iTunes.com streaming media to iPhone and iPad tops the list, followed by amped up MobileMe services, remote backups, and everything else that comes with massive investment in cloud infrastructure.

Now excuse us as we try to lock up all the rest of that land, Scooby Doo villain-like, and wait for our Apple-bucks payoff...!

[Bloomberg]